Cedar City Council OKs $500K in Fleet Purchases, Including K-9 Truck, Masticator and Street Sweeper
Council approved vehicles and equipment for police, vegetation management and street operations
Source: stgeorgeutah.com ↗
Cedar City, Utah, approved more than $500,000 in fleet purchases at its most recent council meeting, covering a police K-9 truck, a masticator for vegetation management and a broom sweeper for street operations.
The K-9 vehicle carries the largest single-unit price among the police purchases. While standard Ford Police Interceptor Utility vehicles in the replacement cycle cost $46,760 each, the K-9 unit requires a larger platform to house the dog and its associated equipment, according to the council packet. The purchase cleared the city’s $50,000 purchasing policy threshold, triggering the council approval requirement.
“We’re just over the $50,000 limit in the purchasing policy here to seek approval from council.” an official told the council. “It’s a vehicle that’s already been approved in our budget, so it’s not new money. It’s just — we’re looking for permission to spend the money you’ve already given us.”
The street operations division had already taken delivery of a new broom sweeper before the vote. Street and Solid Waste Superintendent Eric Witzke said the unit, priced at $372,005, replaces an older sweeper and is budgeted.
Witzke described a service area that reaches as far as Kanarraville and includes airport property. “I mean, we drive, sometimes clear down to Kanarraville to sweep,” he said. “the airport would like to acquire the sweeper to sweep on airport property, use it for their parking lot, taxiways, around the hangars. They can’t use their big broom around the hangars because it just throws the rock, where this would actually sweep and clean up.”
Cedar City Fire Chief Mike Phillips spoke to the masticator purchase, framing the unit as a force-multiplier for a crew that currently uses a smaller, general-purpose vehicle for vegetation work. “So what we’re doing is, we’re taking a small vehicle — so a jack of all trades, master of none — so we put a bunch of — a little bit of equipment on it, so it can start a lot of things.” Phillips said. “But it can’t completely do them. So the crew can get there a lot quicker, and it’s a lot cheaper to drive that truck around to do inspections and do other things like that. So it saves the taxpayers money.”
All three purchases were described by city officials as already budgeted, with council action required only because individual unit costs exceeded the autonomous spending threshold.
