by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington City Council made the purchase of a new bulldozer for the landfill official Tuesday night, voting 3-1 to buy a new Caterpillar bulldozer from a dealer in Wichita for $374,500. The city will pay $150,000 down and finance the rest.

Voting in favor of the purchase of a new bulldozer was: Vince Wetta, Kip Etter, and Bill Butts. Jim Valentine voted against it. Jan Korte abstained. Kelly Green was absent while attending a state water conference.

The dozer has been a topic of discussion for a few meetings, and others considered included a new John Deere that would have cost $50,000 less. But city officials felt they would have to spend more on the Deere which would have negated the savings.

Public Works director Jeremy Jones said their current piece of equipment is a Kamtasu that has 6,100 hours on it, and it was not designed for landfill type work. They had spent well over $100,000 on repairs over the last year and a half, and Jones said companies he talked to recommended not continuing repairs. They would have to spend $74,000 to replace the motor and it would still need more work. He said even salvage operations did not want the machine for scrap metal.

The city held a long work session recently and talked in great detail about the dozers. Judge Frank Korte addressed the council and suggested they try to rebuild the older one.

Jones explained that the money for the machine is coming from the departments funds, and not from taxes They get their money through monthly garbage collections as well as transfers and people who bring material to the landfill. That includes non residents of Wellington, so people living outside the city are paying a small part.

He said they had the money in the reserve fund about $325,000, but he did not want to completely deplete that fund, so suggested spending $150,000 as a down payment.

Jones said people do not realize how harsh of an environment a landfill is for a bulldozer. A machine needs specialized equipment to work in that environment. He said there are 25 caterpillars being used in Kansas landfills, and no John Deere’s. Someone else noted that there are Deere bulldozers being used in other places.

The city is currently paying $8,000 per month for a rental unit. The new dozer should be available soon after the first of the year.

Councilman Bill Butts said he talked at length with several people in the construction business, “and they all said we need the caterpillar.”

He agreed that it is a lot of money, but spending a lot more to fix up the old unit did not make much sense when that money could have gone for a new unit.

Council member Kip Etter said he went to Wichita to look at the bulldozers, and talked with a lot of people, and was convinced the Caterpillar was what the city needs..

“From what I have seen, while the Deere costs less, the cost of ownership is less with the Caterpillar,” Etter said. “It would be made up over the life of the machine.”

They also took bids for financing, and Cornerbank was given the nod with an interest rate of 2.25 percent.

•••••

City employees recognized…

The city of Wellington recognized employees for years of service.

Employee longevity service awards are as follows: 

•10 years of service. Bryan Booth, Water Department.; Bryan Stewart, Police Department; Chrostopher Fullerton, Electric Department John Karns, Electric Production Department.

•15 years of service: Nathan Nuss, Sanitation Department; Sandra Brownlee, Utility Collections Department; Jerry Preston, Fire Department.

•20 years: Tracy Thomas, Street Department.

•25 years: Travis Horsch, Electric Production.

•30 years: Mark Farley, Fire Department; Darrell Grizzle, Street Department

•35 years: Dale Miller, Electric Distribution.

•••••

Wellington resident concerns…

City resident Russell Rains addressed the council, and pointed out what may be an unintended consequence in the city’s contract with utility customers. He said he and some friends have been helping some people who are having trouble paying their bills.

According to the contract with the city, no one can live in a house that has past due utilities on it. That could mean if he were paying someone’s utility bill, and they owned a back utility bill, he could get in trouble with his own account.

City officials said they would look into it, and said they were not aware of anyone having a problem with that type situation. They also said they were unaware that was in the contract.

•••••

In other news:

• The city agreed to a design engineering service for a road project on Highway 81 from Harvey Street south to Bodkin. This will cost the city $108,000. It is part of a state project and the state will pay 85 percent of the cost up to $1.5 million.

•The city will have a work session with officials from the Kansas Power Pool at 5:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 23 at City Hall.

Follow us on Twitter.