The City of Lisbon approved the purchase of a new vehicle for the city’s fleet and reduce employees having to use their own vehicles. Council member Rick Scott provided the dissenting opinion, citing the amount of money the city was spending.
City administrator Brandon Siggins said council member Kevin Steele had brought a deal to the attention of the city at Lynch Ford Chevrolet. The truck had a price of $41,263, which is a $10,000 savings from a new vehicle purchase.
The vehicle would come from $15,000 expenses from water, $15,000 from sewer and the remaining from cable/TV fees fund. It would be used to run water samples twice a week from the sewage treatment plant to the testing lab. When it is not in use for that, the vehicle would be used by the parks and recreation department or the public works department.
“I just don’t understand why we need to purchase a $41,000 new truck,” Scott said. “No one said we needed a new truck.”
Public works director Travis Bagby said that the city needs to have their employees stop driving their own vehicles on the job, and this will help with that issue.
Scott agreed that it is a huge liability for staff to drive their own vehicles, but he again had an issue with a brand new truck at this price point.
Council member John Bardsley said he remembers a time when the city bought a used vehicle when they would have been better off buying a new one and the costs that arose.
“This is a good deal for a new vehicle,” Bardsley said.
Lisbon approves changes to Downtown Reinvestment Grant application
The Lisbon city council approved changes to the Downtown Reinvestment grant application program.
City administrator Brandon Siggins said that many of the changes addressed issues the council was having, including the timeline for a project’s completion and giving the council an opportunity to ask questions about a project before money is rewarded.
“I hope we get applications for this every year still,” said mayor Doug O’Connor. “I just have a hard time with money being tied up by a project that we never see fruition when others could use it in the same time frame.”