Commissioners open bids for graders

County Commissioners opened bids on new road graders for the county Monday morning, saying they may buy up to four of the new machines.

“It depends on the cost and what they give us for trade-in on ours,” said Eastern District Commissioner Gary Collins, who added the idea is to keep newer equipment that is always under warranty.

“In the old days we could fix about anything on the graders because they were just mechanical,” said Western District Commissioner Layne Nance. “But anymore you can’t do anything on one of them unless you plug it into a computer first.”

County commissioners put the rotation into place several years ago to try and replace the graders every few years before the machines’ warranties expired. “It’s saved us a lot of money,” said Nance. “That’s for sure.”

Three Springfield-area companies submitted bids, representing brands Caterpillar, John Deere and Komatsu.

It was a variety of bids, since Collins asked for a bid on a larger grader for the east side of the county and trade-in amounts differ for each machine. Each commissioner is looking at buying two machines for a total of four road graders.

Bids received were:

Fabick Cat: Caterpillar 140, $329,500 with a trade in range of $115,000-$118,000.

Murphy Equipment: John Deere 670 (EAST), $362,063 with trade-in range of $159,900-$162,300; John Deere 770 (EAST) $388,668 with trade-in range of $159,900-$162,300; John Deere 670 (WEST) $362,063 with trade-in range of $148,800 plus an additional $11,206 for “repairs” to the trade in; John Deere 670 (WEST) $362,063 with trade-in range of $148,800 plus $13,776 for “repairs” to the trade in.

Berry Tractor: Komatsu grader $289,580 with trade in of $110,500.

After a brief discussion on the matter, commissioners voted to table the issue to give them time to weigh all their options.

Representatives from Caterpillar and John Deere said that delivery of the machines would range from 6 months to a year.

In other business during the regular weekly commission meeting Monday, commissioners set April 3 as the date to open bids for fuel for the sheriff’s department.

Commissioners also discussed, at some length, maintenance issues around the courthouse and county buildings. Commissioners announced that they were planning an inspection of all county property on March 14 and that a report would be discussed in an upcoming meeting.

Collins said that the recycling center only takes cash or checks, and that, at this time, credit and debit cards cannot be accepted.

County commissioners meet at 9 a.m. every Monday on the second floor of the Ozark County Courthouse. The meetings are open to the public.

Ozark County Times

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