Chair refers utility director’s truck-replacement recommendation to finance

Mister Cohen, the city’s utility director, told attendees at the June 1 meeting in Nelsonville that the city’s hydro-excavation "combo" truck — the vehicle crews use most for sewer and water work — is down and should be replaced. "We have our back truck, which is the single most used piece of equipment that the city of Nelsonville has, and it saved thousands upon thousands of dollars in overtime," Cohen said, describing the truck’s role in emergency responses and regular maintenance.

Cohen said the truck is a roughly 10-year-old combination vacuum/hydro-excavation and jetting unit and that a vendor recently inspected it. He told the meeting the truck’s current failure would not be a cheap repair and that the vendor remained willing to honor earlier trade-in pricing. Cohen said the replacement under consideration has a longer jet line and a larger debris tank — "This one's got 1,000 [feet]" compared with the city truck's "300 foot of jet line" — and that, given how often crews use the equipment, buying the larger vehicle "is crazy not to buy it." He gave a concrete example of short-term cost impacts: because the city lacked its own jetter while the truck was down, Cohen said Nelsonville paid a private company $1,500 for a single service call.

Council participants pressed for details about lifespan, maintenance and funding. The chair asked whether the existing truck had reached an expected life span; Cohen said the current vehicle was about 10 years old and that companies commonly expect similar equipment to last from roughly five to 10 years depending on use. On preventive maintenance, Cohen said the city takes the vehicle to the dealer annually for a thorough service.

On cost, Cohen referenced two vendor pricing tracks discussed at the meeting (quoted in the transcript as "$5.60" and a "state bid" option of "$5.82") and said choosing the non-state-bid procurement route would be about $22,000 cheaper; the vendor also reportedly offered about "50,000" for the trade-in. The record on the table did not specify the monetary units or whether those quoted figures reflect thousands or another unit, so the precise dollar amounts and financing terms remain not specified. Cohen also said there is a $100,000 line item in the city's large-equipment budget (line-item cited as 70725) that could be applied toward a purchase, and participants noted vendor financing options of 60–84 months would affect monthly payments.

After discussion, the chair said the recommendation would be taken to the finance department for review with the city's recommendation. "We are going to take this to finance and see what they say about it," the chair said, and meeting participants signaled agreement. No formal vote was recorded on the purchase itself; the action recorded in the meeting was a referral for financial review.

Mister Taylor, who spoke in support of the purchase, recalled the original decision to buy a truck rather than a trailer and said the combined jetter-and-vacuum configuration had proven beneficial and safer for crews. The meeting closed with the referral to finance and no immediate purchase authorization.

The next procedural step recorded was referral to the finance department for review; no purchase was finalized at the meeting.