City council voted unanimously to complete the purchase of a semi-automated garbage collection vehicle by releasing funds to the Department of Public Works and Utilities.
“That’s going to be great for city employees,” said Moose Jaw Mayor Clive Tolley. “This will mean the entire city now has got the (green) bins and that will take the stress off the backs of some our employees. (It will) speed things up, make collection more automated and more quickly done.”
The semi-automated unit will replace Unit 130, the last remaining manual garbage truck in the city. Unit 130 was condemned due to condition.
Moose Jaw garbage collection will now be done entirely using standardized bins.
The purchase of a new truck was approved during budget deliberations in 2021. The truck was meant to be delivered by fall of 2021 for the price of $235,000.
Supply chain issues delayed delivery of the unit until June 2022, Darrin Stephanson, Director of Public Works and Utilities, explained during the report.
“The pandemic created supply chain issues. We were expecting this in the fall of last year, and the date kept getting bumped and ultimately it fell into 2022 before the truck had arrived.”
The trucks have to be custom-built – they aren’t waiting on lots – and Stephanson said the delay wasn’t unusual in light of COVID.
The accumulated depreciation of the unit is $252,365.59 and the awarded tender came in at $241,759.25.
There was some concern that residents used to putting bags out on the curb might be frustrated at first, but council didn’t hesitate to approve the release of $241,759.25 to finalize the transaction.
“I think there’ll be some concern that their weekly garbage isn’t going to be picked (with the limit of six bags per bin),” said city manager Jim Puffalt. “That’s part of the communications campaign we want to do with people and let them know that it’s coming. And as you know, our back alleys are really narrow, so we needed a specialized piece of equipment.”
