County Highway to purchase pair of tandem dump trucks

Three years of saving will soon pay off for the Putnam County Highway Department.

The department is set to purchase a pair of tandem axle trucks and state-of-the-art dump beds.

The entire $344,000 purchase will be made without financing, as the Highway Department has not purchased a new truck since 2012.

"That's been a goal of mine," County Highway Supervisor Mike Ricketts told the County Commissioners Monday, "to buy them outright."

The trucks come with a price tag of nearly $113,000 each. Terre Haute Truck Center was the only company to respond to requests for truck bids.

The beds, at a price of $59,000 each, come from Palmer Bed Company, which is a related operation to Terre Haute Truck Center.

They come with a price tag of $9,000 more than the nearest bid, which came from Clark Truck Equipment, but Ricketts said he believes the better quality equipment will last longer and save the county money in the long run.

"I think the county can reduce our fleet if we get better quality equipment," Ricketts said. "We'll make it last longer."

The difference, as explained at the meeting, is the makeup of the Swedish steel used to make the Beau-Roc brand dump bodies being purchased from Palmer. The unique makeup of the metal gives the material the ability to flex without breaking and excellent resistance to corrosion.

The commissioners approved the purchase unanimously, making special note of how impressed they were that such a large purchase was being made in cash.

The two new trucks will be added to the county's fleet of 14 tandem-axle trucks and will be utilized both for hauling materials and as plow trucks in the winter.

Ricketts also gave some final statistics for paving work during 2015.

The county spent a total of $939,347.39 on paving and chip-and-seal work this year.

This money went to 16.05 miles of chip-and-seal, 3.3 miles of cold mix asphalt and 4.36 miles of hot mix asphalt.

With paving work now over, much of the department's effort is focused on other projects, with three graders, one maintainer and four patching crews out on county roads.