Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Evarts City Council decided to move ahead with the purchase of a new garbage truck during a recent meeting.

Evarts Mayor Eddie Manning brought the topic up to the council.

“I think we probably want to start out with some discussion about a garbage truck,” Manning said. “We’ve got this American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money that we’ve got in place.”

Manning reminded the council the funding has had a lot of stipulations placed on it.

“We’ve talked about it for a year or two,” Manning said. “It seems like they’re starting to ease up on some of these (stipulations).”

Manning pointed out that most of the items the funds could originally be spent on would not be useful to the city.

“We did spend about $65,000 of that money to add new material to build a water system,” Manning said. “Now they’ve come back and offered for us to use it on equipment.”

Manning suggested the council consider using the funds for a new garbage truck.

“Our garbage truck is probably 12-years-old now,” Manning said. “I think it may be time that we look at using that money to invest in a new garbage truck.”

Manning pointed out the city’s current garbage truck has recently been out for repairs.

“It was down for a week,” Manning said. “One of the most important jobs we can do is get the garbage out of the city. I think we need to start looking at that money for that, for two reasons. One is because it’s available and we can spend it on it, and two if we spend that money on a garbage truck, then we don’t have to go out and get a loan and have to raise people’s rates to cover the loan.”

Manning told the panel quotes on a new truck have been acquired.

“The money will be here in July, and we may have almost enough money by the time it comes…That we can pay for a new garbage truck,” Manning said. “At the end of the day, we won’t have to get a loan and raise people’s rates to cover it.”

Manning mentioned the price for the truck can be locked in when the truck is ordered.

“We’re looking at having about $135,000 (of ARPA funds)…We may not be out a whole lot more to just pay cash for a new garbage truck,” Manning said. “The new truck is about $159,900, and we’re fortunate enough right now if you look at the garbage fund that I think we can do it.”

Manning advised the council the option trading in the old truck was explored.

“We did talk about looking at trading in our old truck,” Manning said. “The old truck would be worth $7,500. I think it that’s all we can get out of it we need to keep it and use it as a back up.”

After some discussion, the council passed a motion to purchase a new garbage truck.