Oktibbeha County is expected to pay for the purchase of a new paving machine as supervisors quickly approach hitting their line item for equipment purchases this fiscal year.
Supervisors Monday approved a bid process expected to procure the machinery after approving the outright purchase of a $69,000 compactor.
Road Manager Victor Collins estimated a new paving machine could cost at least $150,000.
Supervisors allocated $150,000 for equipment purchases in Fiscal Year 2015-2016, County Administrator Emily Garrard confirmed. The county will receive an additional $58,000 for a truck that wrecked last fall, pushing its line item to $208,000.
Including the compactor and a previous outright purchase of a backhoe, Garrard said supervisors have obligated about $130,000 for new equipment in the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The county will use the balance of the funding for financing the new paving machine and the purchase of two new pickup trucks previously authorized by the board, she said.
Garrard said financing the equipment purchases across several years will prevent the county from dipping into cash reserves.
Supervisors could put other purchases on hold after allocating most of their spending capacity.
On Monday, Collins recommended the board buy a new paving machine instead of an older model because it could cut down on the costs associated with wasting material. If the county obtains 500 tons of material for a project and an older machine breaks down 250 tons into its work, “we still own 500 tons of material.”
“I know when we started this thing, we were talking about a used machine. There’s a lot of cost in a paving machine that’s used,” Collins said. “My suggestion would be to buy a new one, but I’m just a pea in a pod.”
A new paving machine would also come with updated leveling equipment to assist in paving and technology to heat its paving apparatus quicker. Older machines, he said, have to run with the engine fully throttled for 30-45 minutes to reach an appropriate temperature.
District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller pointed out an outright purchase would cause the road department to go over budget with equipment purchases this fiscal year, but District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams agreed with Collins on the need for a new piece of machinery.
“I think there are some things we need to buy used, but a paving machine is not one of those things,” he said.
Supervisors unanimously voted to move forward with the bid process.
Collins said it would take at least a week to draw up bid specifications.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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