by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Two big snow loaders may become part of snow removal in the future if the council approves them at an upcoming budget workshop.
At its March 27 meeting, the council discussed the proposal from the Sartell Public Works Department and decided to delay a decision until the budget workshop.
Each loader, brand new, would cost about $157,000 – $314,000 for the two of them.
Such loaders each have a 16-foot-wide blade that allows the plowed snow to stay on and in the loader so the massive amount of snow can be moved and deposited just where the loader-driver wants to put it. That method is ideal for plowing culs-de-sac, Sartell Public Works Director John Kothenbeutel told the council. When street workers use regular snow plows, that can’t be done without a lot of forward-and-reverse movements of the plow, which creates wear and tear on the machines and makes for far less efficient snow-plowing and snow-stacking.
One of the main winter complaints about snow-plowing comes from residents who live at culs-de-sac about snow stacked high in yards and too near to driveways, Kothenbeutel noted. Last plowing season, public-works staff tested the use of loaders at culs-de-sac, and they and residents were pleased with the results.
Kothenbeutel told the council the loaders can be used in many other applications, too, besides just snow-plowing.
How to pay for them?
Sartell Financial Director/Administrator Mary Degiovanni told the council thanks to good news about the 2016 general fund, the city can build up the 2017 general-fund balance to maintain a level that makes possible a cash flow for needed operations, including the loaders if the council so decides. Degiovanni explained there was a combination of lower-than-expected budgeted expenditures and higher-than-expected revenues last year, as will be reflected in the audit when it’s presented to the council later next month.
Degiovanni said city staff checked the cost of leasing loaders and that such a plan would not be cost-effective over time.
This is an example of a snow-loading vehicle.
