The Decatur County Board of commissioners unanimously voted last Tuesday to put a damaged dozer out for sale with plans to rent a new one until they can release bids for purchase of a new dozer.
Decatur County Landfill manager Andrew Jones said the older dozer was approaching 9,000 hours of use, and fixing it could cost as much as $50,000. Yancey Bros., a dozer dealer, is reportedly willing to pay $45,800 for the machine.
Jones proposed renting a new dozer from Yancey for $7,400 a month for work at the DCL until replacement parts can be purchased for the damaged dozer.
A new dozer costs roughly $250,000, Jones said. He also pointed out that a dozer with nearly 9,000 hours wasn’t reliable.
“You’ve got a dozer with all these hours, you put so much money into it and something else breaks,” Jones said.
Commissioner Russell Smith’s first motion was for selling the dozer and renting one until bids for a proposal could be released for purchase of a newer one.
Commissioner Rusty Davis suggested keeping the older dozer while renting a newer one, and possibly trade for something better down the road.
“Why don’t we keep the old machine and not sell it until we can get the trade worked out?” Davis proposed. “Maybe we can get more out of it on the trade instead of selling it.”
Decatur County secretary Suzanne Brandt said Yancey offered Decatur County the ability to put the older machine out for sale, and if the county was able to get more than the $45,800 Yancey was willing to pay, the dozer dealer would honor that as well.
Smith’s motion was amended to sell the tractor and rent one until bids could be proposed for a new dozer.