Finance committee approves truck purchase, transfer deal

2021 LITE Foundation Glow Run

Taylor County is shuffling vehicles to help reduce expenses.

The county’s buildings and grounds department needs to replace a 2008 Dodge truck that is used on a daily basis by department staff. According to buildings and ground supervisor Joe Svedja, the truck was purchased used from the sheriff’s department several years ago and they are beginning to see a number of costly repairs in it, leading him to question if it is safe to continue to use it.

On Tuesday, members of the county’s finance committee approved allowing the forestry department to purchase a new pick-up truck using money set aside each year from forest revenue. The forestry department will then sell the existing five-year-old pick-up to the buildings and grounds department for $15,000.

The forestry department typically keeps vehicles on a six-year replacement schedule. The estimated cost of a new truck, with government discounts is expected to be about $34,000. Svedja said it would make more sense and keep the funds in county coffers to follow past practice of the department purchasing a used vehicle from forestry rather than going out and purchasing their own vehicle.

Finance committee chairman Chuck Zenner, who also chairs the forestry committee, said he wanted to bring it to the finance committee to avoid accusations that the forestry department is spending county money on its own. Finance committee member Scott Mildbrand, who has in the past been critical of department’s spending money on their own, thanked Zenner for bringing it to the finance committee.

Zenner said that even advancing the purchase of a truck up a year, with the money from buildings and grounds, they would have enough to cover a new vehicle within their existing budget.

With the approval to purchase a new truck for forestry, the finance committee will leave it up to that department’s committee to go through the bid process for a vehicle.

In other forestry-related business, committee members took no action on deciding if they should be an investor in a cooperative looking to take over the Park Falls Mill. According to Zenner, forestry committee members were questionable about if it was a worthwhile use of county funds and what kind of precedent it would set for other types of businesses. In other business, committee members:

_ Formally approved the resolution for county bridge aid for 2021. Under the county bridge aid program, the county pays half the cost of replacing bridges and qualifying culverts in participating municipalities. The county’s portion is then levied across all participating municipalities to spread the cost out. According to commissioner Ben Stanfley, there will be an addition to the list from a project in the town of Maplehurst.

_ Approved the equipment schedule for the highway department for the coming year. Stanfley explained that the amount being budgeted is within $5,000 of previous years. Major purchases include getting two new quad axle vehicles with plow equipment for use on state highway routes. This will allow the county to carry a larger capacity of brine during the winter snow removal months. He said this will also allow the county to get onto a 10-year replacement cycle for the patrol trucks.

_ Reviewed a preliminary list of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) fund projects. The county received nearly $2 million in the funds from the federal government with restrictions on how it can be spent. Last month, committee members had asked departments to come up with “wish list” items for projects. While committee members didn’t decide on how to spend it, committee member Tim Hansen sent the clear message that they would not be using it for personnel or other ongoing operational expenses. Hansen said he would like to see the money used to fund one-time projects that the county would otherwise never be able to do. Examples include constructing additional communications towers or upgrading technology infrastructure. A full list of the requests will go to the county board later this fall with all the board members getting a chance for input about how it should be spent.