Highway set to purchase $1.3 million in equipment

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Having reported the need for several new pieces of equipment in February, the Putnam County Highway Department is set to move forward with the purchase of seven new pieces of large equipment.

At a total cost of $1,348,594, the county will net four new tandem dump trucks with plows, a new distributor truck chassis and tank, a chip spreader and a dirt loader.

Bids for the purchases were opened at the Monday, March 6 meeting of the Putnam County Commissioners, but no final decision was made until Monday, once the bids had been reviewed by County Highway Supervisor Mike Ricketts and County Attorney Jim Ensley.

The accepted bids included $689,236 for the four Kenworth tandem trucks from Palmer Trucks of Terre Haute, $96,081 for a Kenworth chassis for the distributor truck from Palmer, $108,614 for a distributor tank from Southeastern Equipment of Indianapolis, $252,413 for a chip spreader from Southeastern and $202,250 for a dirt loader from Brandeis Machinery of Indianapolis.

County officials had hoped for a more competitive bidding process on the equipment, but received just one bid each for the distributor chassis, distributor tank, chip spreader and dirt loader.

The other three bids for the dump trucks included $692,902.88 for Peterbilts from Rahn Equipment of Danville, Ill.; $657,698.99 for Kenworths from Rahn; and $587,524 for Internationals from Clark Equipment of Linden.

Ricketts explained that the other bids were rejected because they were either more expensive or did not meet the specifications Putnam County was seeking.

However, going with Palmer did give the commissioners pause before making the final decision. In late 2015, the county ordered two trucks from Palmer’s Terre Haute Truck Center that did not arrive for 10 months.

Ricketts assured the commissioners that steps have been taken in the contract to keep that from happening again.

Once Palmer takes delivery of the chassis, the company will have 60 days to get it to Putnam County. At that point, $500 will be knocked off the purchase price, followed by $100 for each subsequent day.

“So if we got with Palmer Kenworths,” Commissioner Rick Woodall said, “it’s going to guarantee we don’t have the fiasco we did last year?”

“Yes,” Ricketts assured him.

Woodall also told the Banner Graphic that another selling point for going back to Palmer is its utilization of Beau-Roc dump bodies, which stand up much better to the corrosive road salt often hauled in the trucks.

Going with the same types of trucks from the same company could also prove helpful for maintenance purposes.

Having also received bids for financing most of the equipment, the commissioners also agreed to terms with First National Bank on a five-year note for $1,146,344 at an interest rate of 2.09 percent.

Rates were also obtained from both Tri-County Bank and North Salem State Bank, each of which had a rate of 2.4 percent.

The dirt loader will be paid for up front with money from the Cumulative Bridge Fund.

At both the state and county level, there is some confusion over whether this is an accepted use of the fund.

Ensley explained that, by state code, Cumulative Bridge may be used for anything pertaining to road or waterway work within 500 feet of a bridge or culvert.

While what exact percentage of the implement’s work this entails is all but impossible to determined, Ensley said the county is prepared to argue that it makes for a large percentage of the work load.

The State Board of Accounts could have another opinion in the matter, which the county will learn in the coming years.

The one other set of bids recently received by the county highway will remain unresolved for now.

The county also opened bids to rehabilitate Bridge 150 on County Road 100 South, southeast of Greencastle.

CLR Inc. of Vincennes submitted a bid of $302,557.80, while HIS Construction of Indianapolis bid $465,849.70.

Ricketts pointed out that both bids exceeded the engineer’s estimate significantly — by 10.5 percent for CLR and by 70 percent for HIS.

Since both are more than 5 percent in excess of the estimate, the job is eligible to be bid again. Ricketts requested that it be re-bid, with further clarity.

“I think there’s some clarification that needs to be made on the bid,” Ricketts said.

The commissioners unanimously rejected the original bids before also approving a new bid process.

In other business:

• Donald Hatfield was approved as the new county planning and zoning director.

• The commissioners tabled a decision about taking the Putnam County Animal Shelter veterinarian tech position from part time to full time.

Commissioner David Berry said he wants to get more information from sheriff’s department Chief Deputy Phil Parker before moving forward.

• The commissioners officially approved the 2017 contract with the Greencastle-Putnam County Development Center. The $40,000 was already allocated with the approval of the 2017 EDIT plan last month.

• Berry requested the formation of a committee to look into the future of the old Jones School/Courthouse Annex property on Liberty Street.

County officials have variously discussed selling the property and building or possibly building a new annex at the site.

Commissioners Woodall and Don Walton agreed to the request. The group is to be composed of Berry, Darrel Thomas and Jill Bridgewater of the Putnam County Council, Auditor Lorie Hallett and Ensley.

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