At a meeting of the Anniston City Council, a staff member described plans to buy 44 new golf carts and two utility vehicles for the Parks and Recreation Department, saying the purchase would replace an aging leased fleet and be listed on the consent agenda as agenda item 2025-01.

The staff member said the city currently operates under a 60-month lease with a 48-month warranty that has not worked well in practice. “We have a lease that goes through October,” the staff member said, and the city has a dollar buyout scheduled in October that has created equity in the fleet.

City staff explained the replacement would be funded partly by selling used carts, short-term local bank borrowing arranged by a staffer named Jessica, and remaining financing on a 48-month payment schedule for the new units. The staff member said about 39 existing carts would be sold, five of the best would be reassigned to the Hill at no charge, and the sale proceeds plus borrowing would leave “around $50,000 in cash.” The staff member added that payment levels for the new purchase would be “very similar” to current payments once the transactions are complete.

Staff described operational problems with the current fleet, including frequent breakdowns and high wear from rough conditions at some facilities. The staff member said carts routinely go out of service—“we've got 6 carts down, and we usually have about a dozen or more in the afternoon on Saturday or Sunday that have to wait for another cart to come back through”—and that the facility terrain and tree-root damage have contributed to failures. Staff also said the city plans to ask bidders about different materials (aluminum versus steel) for parts that commonly fail.

On technical choices, staff said the new units will be gas-operated rather than electric to avoid nightly charging problems, and noted GPS units can drain batteries on gas carts because GPS equipment draws power.

The staff member said there were three bidders for the procurement, including one bidder based in Pennsylvania, and that Yamaha is the city’s current provider. The staff recommended against the city operating a retail resale program for individual carts because of warranty and service liabilities.

The transcript records the discussion and shows the item placed on the consent agenda as agenda item 2025-01; the meeting transcript does not record a formal motion or vote on the purchase.

The discussion included references to related local tasks: selling surplus carts, assigning five units to the Hill, expediting the end of the lease to capture sales proceeds, and arranging local bank borrowing to reduce short-term payments. No specific contract award, vendor name for the new purchase, final price, or vote tally appears in the transcript.