Council nips grader problem in bud

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

As summer draws to a close, the Town of Strathmore council decided to spend thousands of dollars, not originally earmarked in the 2015 budget, on major repairs to the transmission of their grader.
Even though the transmission of the 2003 mid-size grader is still in operation, a routine servicing deemed the machine in need of either repair or replacement of its transmission.
“While the transmission has not yet failed, it could fail at any time,” said Mel Tiede, director of corporate services for the Town of Strathmore.
“Quite often when failure happens it’s at the worst opportune time. It’s recommended to council that council authorize the use of funds from financial stabilization to complete the repair on this grader.”
Tiede added that operations during the winter would be difficult in removing all snow in a timely manner, if the situation was to be ignored.
Council had an option of forking over $49,400 to repair the transmission, replace the grader with a newer model with an attached $260,000 price-tag, replace the item with a used grader with costs dependent on the age and availability of the unit, or defer the repairs to a later time, which was said to have a weighty impact on the town’s operations of public works during snow removal.
“I’m always concerned about when you start repairing and something happens, and something else happens, and it goes on and on,” said Councillor Steve Grajczyk.
According to administration, repairs would allow for the machinery to be used for another six to seven years.
In chorus with the advice of the town’s Chief Administrative Officer Dwight Stanford, who expressed his opinion through an email to the town, town council agreed to dip into their pockets and authorize the funds to be taken out of Financial Stabilization, to complete the repairs on the mid-size grader at an estimated amount of $49,400, on Sept. 2.