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City to buy bucket truck, PD radios
The Weimar city council approved almost $400k in bucket truck and Weimar Police Department radio purchases at their recent city council meeting last Thursday, Nov. 14.
The purchases were approved after it was revealed that the current bucket truck, which is the only one owned by the city, is used to operate on the same scale as having two bucket trucks, and the PD radios are 11 to13 years old.
Weimar city manager Richard Whitten spoke to council members about the bucket truck dilemma, revealing that the one currently in operation only has a 40-foot boom, limiting the work the city is able to do.
Whitten emphasized how the repairs made typically need two bucket trucks, and how having only one at the moment has hampered the city’s ability to make repairs efficiently. The addition of the next bucket truck, which would include a 55-foot boom, would allow the city to use the 40-foot boom as the secondary bucket truck and the 55foot boom as the primary.
“Oftentimes repairs they’re making actually need two bucket trucks,” said Whitten. “So not having the one that we’ve had to be able to be the primary or the big heavy duty bucket truck has really hampered us. Having this will also minimize some of the contractor call outs we’ve had to do simply because we’re lacking a second truck.”
The truck, alongside the radios, are both allocated on the city’s budget, with $228,050 allocated towards the bucket truck purchase and $212,500 allocated towards new radios.
Whitten says however that the price of the truck, given that it is their first choice, would be a quick to purchase stock unit that goes a little bit over what was budgeted. Despite that, he believes it would be a good fit and already meets Texas bidding requirements.
“This was a budgeted item we planned. It’s actually, I believe, a little bit over what we budgeted,” said Whitten. “The numbers came in a little bit higher than what we anticipated, but this is a stock unit. It is readily available and could be purchased quickly through one of our purchasing cooperations, so they already meet the Texas bidding requirements.”
Weimar Police Chief Mark Jameson followed up Whitten’s presentation emphasizing the need for new police radios, noting how the current ones are beginning to fail, which could put an officer’s life in extreme danger. The proposed bid for the new radios fell short of the number anticipated on the budget by almost $60,000, coming in at $158,000.
“We really should be on a replacement or a maintenance program with those radios,” said Jameson. “Because those radios are our lifeline when the officer is out and when he’s asking for help or anything of that nature. If they fail, that’s bad, and we’re running into some of them failing, we anticipated this. That’s why we put it in the budget. The number that we got, we were fortunate. Through some of the old contacts that I had, we were able to secure a bid for $158,000.”
Jameson says the new proposed radios are state of the art and offer more protection for the police officers, including GPS tracking.
“These are top of the line,” said Jameson. “These are the radios that we had in Victoria, and they are state of the art. They are much better than what we currently have, and it gives us more. So let’s say an officer gets out into a pursuit, a foot pursuit, I can actually pull up and see where he or she is. We don’t have that right now. We have it in the car, but if they get in a pursuit, they’re getting out of their vehicles, and we don’t have ways to track them.”
Mayor Milton R. Koller also read a proclamation declaring Saturday, Nov. 30, as Small Business Saturday in Weimar.
The proclaimed day is intended to stimulate economic growth locally for small merchants, similar to the traditions of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
In the proclamation, Koller emphasizes how small businesses are the “backbone” of Weimar’s economy and “the glue that holds communities together.”
“The city of Weimar supports the efforts of local small businesses and recognizes the critical role they play in our community,” said Koller. “Small Business Saturday is a nationwide campaign to cultivate business for small merchants on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. And whereas we recognize citizens to consider shopping local merchants on Small Business Saturday as a way to boost the local economy and strengthen our small business community. We encourage all citizens to join us in this worthy observer observance and to support small businesses and merchants on Small Business Saturday and throughout the year.”
The next city council meeting will be held on Thursday, Dec. 12 at 2 p.m. due to the Down Home Christmas event.
