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Committee backs replacing aging garbage trucks and adding route‑management software
Summary
The committee approved forwarding a package that would replace two large collection vehicles and buy a knuckle‑boom truck (staff estimates: two trucks at about $425,000 each and a $200,000 knuckle boom), and authorized consideration of Routeware route‑management software (~$24,000/year).
The McMinnville Finance Committee approved sending to the full board a proposal that includes replacing aging sanitation vehicles and adding a route‑management tool.
Speaker 4, who described the sanitation fleet condition, said the 2009 front loader "has made its lifecycle" and argued repairs such as new transmissions (quoted as about $20,000) can be uneconomic compared with replacement. Staff identified replacement priorities as the 2009 front loader (priority 1), a 2014 side loader (priority 2) and an additional knuckle‑boom truck to replace a failing unit; staff estimated the larger trucks at about $425,000 each and the knuckle boom at about $200,000.
Samantha and the committee discussed how selling replaced vehicles on GovDeals could generate surplus proceeds; staff used a middle‑of‑the‑road estimate of about $20,000 per unit for resale in the proposed packet. Staff also emphasized that sanitation is funded by user fees billed with utilities rather than by general taxes; Speaker 4 and Samantha said the department is on pace to net roughly $200,000 per year under current assumptions, which staff argued would allow the fund to sustain the purchases over time.
The committee also examined operational improvements from Routeware, a route‑management product staff said would help state reporting, route tracking and customer notifications. Routeware's annual cost was quoted at about $24,000 a year (roughly $2,000 per month) and staff said it could produce longer‑term efficiencies in routing and fuel use.
Committee members asked about vendor lead times (some units available within a month) and the timetable for rebuilding the sanitation fund balance; estimates discussed ranged from about two to several years depending on whether purchases are paid in cash or financed and on surplus‑sale outcomes.
The committee moved to include the sanitation purchases and Routeware in the package forwarded to the full board; staff will prepare ordinance language and the item will go to the full board for first reading on Dec. 9 with a public hearing on Jan. 13.
