Earle to buy new mowers

Earle to buy new mowers

Purchase ‘ critical’ despite city’s financial woes

news@theeveningtimes.com

With mowing season starting, Earle is looking to replace its damaged equipment so it won’t fall behind on mowing like it did last year when its equipment broke down.

The city has two bush hogs but only one is running. And even that one is damaged and poses a safety risk.

Acity owned tractor is also in poor shape and needs repairing, and somebody walked off with most of the city’s weed eaters as well.

“It’s critical,” said Councilman Robert Malone.

Road Department supervisor Lee Johnson updated the city council about the current inventory of equipment and gave a report about the condition of the city’s property.

Johnson said they have been using one of the bush hogs for parts. The one that runs has a bent safety guard which will need to be fixed. “With the safety guard bent it is dangerous,” Johnson said. “It can separate while it is spinning.”

Councilman Kenneth Cross asked how the equipment got in such bad shape.

“Do we have any employees who know how to drive it?” Cross asked. “Because we can’t keep this up. We don’t have the money.”

Johnson said the equipment was in bad shape when he came back to work for the city in December.

“When I came back, that’s the way it was,” Johnson said. “They probably got too close to the trees (with the bush hog).”

Johnson said they also only have one working weed eater.

“We need at least one more weed eater,” Johnson said.

City Clerk Cynthia Conner said the city has bought weed eaters before, but they turn up missing.

“We buy stuff all the time and people just take them home,” Conner said.

Johnson said the tractor is also missing a canopy and needs a new hood, and new stabilizer bars to lift the bush hog.

Councilwoman Jimmie Barham thanked Johnson for informing them about the equipment and suggested the city take steps to get things back into working order.

“We can’t put milk back into the bottle,” Barham said. “It’s (bush hog) tore up. All I know to do is take it somewhere and get the best price on what it is going to take to get it back into operation. We need a bush hog.” Johnson said the old one is worth fixing.

“I think it could be,” Johnson said. “But it will take a professional to look at it and see.”

A new bush hog will cost the city about $5,000.

The council voted to allow Johnson to buy two new weed eaters and to get an estimate from a dealer to fix the bush hog and to get a price on a new one.

“We don’t want to get behind

like we did last year,”

said Councilman Donnie Cheers.

Malone agreed but said there needs to be stricter accountability in the future for whoever used the equipment.

“If you take care of it, it will last,” Malone said. “But somebody has to be accountable for this. That was a brand new bush hog. This is eating our lunch up. And we don’t get anything for it.”

By Mark Randall