By Megan Alley
Sun staff
During their meeting on Dec. 19, the village of Amelia council approved the purchase of a new snow plow truck, which officials hope will help with road cleanup during snow emergencies.
The 2018 International Snow Plow truck costs $134,000 and comes with a 5-year bumper-to-bumper warranty.
The village used a government lease to buy the truck, and in doing so, won’t have to make the first payment until January 2019, according to Todd Hart, mayor.
The new truck will replace the village’s two older snow plow trucks that date back to 1993, which were inherited.
The village will continue to use its 2001 snow plow truck as well as a recently purchased Ford F-250 truck with a snow plow and salt distributor.
“The average snow plow truck lifespan is seven years, so we’ve well exceeded our lifespan on our trucks,” Hart said. “The first icy snow that we had, we spent six hours of our time just working on trucks that kept breaking down, so that’s not efficient, and we want to be efficient.”
The new truck comes with an updated calibration and electronics that help distribute road salt more effectively.
“The savings on salt is phenomenal, compared to the old method of just manually setting and going,” Hart explained. “These trucks are very efficient.”
Looking ahead to 2018, Hart hopes to purchase another new snow plow truck, and auction off the 1993 trucks and old equipment.
The village is responsible for clearing 14 lane miles of road.
“There should be no excuse for Amelia village not to have clean roads this year when it snows,” Hart said.