El Campo council approves purchase and 7-year financing for used BOMAG reclaimer

EL CAMPO, Texas — The El Campo City Council on Oct. 27 approved the purchase of a gently used 2022 BOMAG reclaimer mixer and authorized financing through First State Bank of Louise at a 4.45% fixed interest rate for a 7-year term.

City staff said the machine was quoted at $238,252 including transportation — the agenda listed a $235,000 purchase price — and reported the model has roughly 1,300 operating hours. Staff noted a comparable new machine would cost about $605,000. "This is what we use in our full depth reclamation where we take the material we already own and we use that proprietary mix of stabilization and bring it back to brand new," Kevin, a Public Works staff member, said in explaining how the machine operates. "It brings it back to life."

The council heard questions about how the machine works in place and whether it mixes material on the road or uses a stockpile; Kevin answered that the reclaimer uses the existing pavement material and stabilizes it in situ. Council members also discussed offsetting the purchase by selling existing equipment. "We are gonna sell our zipper, and we expect to get between $100,000 to $130,000 for that piece of equipment," one speaker said during discussion of the financing.

Staff provided a multi-year cost comparison for doing reclamation in-house versus contracting it out. "Over seven years, we've spent just a little over $1,000,000 doing seven miles," Kevin said. "We estimate if a contractor did the same kind of work it would have cost a little bit $5,000,000. So we've saved about $4,000,000." Those figures were presented as staff estimates.

Council member Hodges, Cobolent and Wallace were named as participants on the public works committee that reviewed the proposal, and the council moved and seconded the financing and purchase. One council member raised a potential conflict of interest related to the financing bank after the initial vote; the council paused, treated that member's prior vote as an abstention, and took a revote. The motion ultimately passed; the transcript does not provide a roll-call tally.

The purchase authorization directs staff to acquire the machine and secure the stated financing. No additional conditions, contingencies or exact repayment schedule were specified in the meeting record.

Votes at a glance: The consent agenda was approved earlier in the meeting; the BOMAG purchase and financing motion passed after a revote prompted by a council member's disclosure; the transcript does not include numeric vote tallies for those motions.

The council later adjourned after an executive session in which no action was taken.