City hall plans to spend nearly $3 million next year to replace aging equipment, with the public works department expected to spend the most money to upgrade several heavy-duty vehicles.
City administration provided an overview of the 2022 equipment reserve budget during the Dec. 8 budget meeting. The budget report indicates that city hall expects to spend $2,655,294 next year from that account to replace equipment and technology.
Meanwhile, city hall plans to use $3,207,454 in carryover funding that it did not use this year to support further upgrades in 2022.
Purpose of equipment reserve
The equipment reserve account provides a three-fold value for Moose Jaw, the budget report explained.
The first is that city hall can save money for future purchases, which allows the fund to generate roughly $1.25 million in annual earnings toward purchasing equipment.
Secondly, if city hall did not save this money, it would have to borrow, the report continued. This would add high costs to the overall price, while additional taxation could be required to cover the costs.
Thirdly, putting money into the equipment reserve ensures that city administration does not take away from equipment purchases to complete other capital projects.
Public works equipment
Darrin Stephanson, director of public works, explained that his department’s carryover funding for equipment purchases is larger than expected — $2,116,114 — for several reasons.
One reason is the department prepared its equipment reserve early this year, so not every item was considered for tendering. Secondly, staffing turnover affected the department’s ability to issue tenders. Lastly, the pandemic is affecting the supply chain.
Some equipment the department wants to replace using carryover funding includes a snowblower, trucks, street sweeper, dump trucks, excavator, a trailer, a lathe and other small equipment.
Meanwhile, the department plans to spend $888,526 from its actual equipment reserve budget to replace nine items. Some items include a camera van to monitor the quality of sewers and storm lines, a street sweeper, two three-quarter tonne trucks, a solid waste utility truck, and a front-end loader.
“All the equipment we want to replace on this list is a minimum 15 years old. Some is up to 31 years old,” Stephanson continued. “That is an effort we’ve undertaken in the last few years, is to modernize our fleets and getting a more realistic service life expectation.”
Some heavy vehicles see extensive use and wear out, which means there is an increase in costs and repair time, added. This creates a “double whammy” since the department has to cannibalize the fleet service’s time to ensure the machinery still functions and does the work it’s supposed to do.
Transit
The public works department also looks after transit and plans to use $763,366 from the equipment reserve budget to purchase a 40-foot bus and scheduling equipment.
The new bus will replace an older model with 500,000 kilometres on it, while the existing software program is nearly 10 years old and is considered old, said Stephanson.
Parks and recreation
The parks and recreation department plans to use $300,779 from its equipment reserve to upgrade five items, including an 11-foot riding mower, a new timing system and digital clock for the Kinsmen Pool, six spin bikes and a utility turf vehicle for Yara Centre, two pool vacuums and a floor scrubber for Pla-Mor Palace.
The mower will replace an older model destroyed in a roll-over two years ago, explained director Derek Blais. Meanwhile, the department purchased six spin bikes this year but did not have money for the rest. So, it split the budget over two years.
The next budget meeting is Monday, Dec. 13.
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
