Excavator Plans Hit Roadblock

Excavator Plans Hit Roadblock
New machine may be off table as officials eye cheaper, used option

News staff photo by ERYN DION The Templeton Highway Department’s excavator is used to help construct the new vault for the town clerk.

ERYN DION
TEMPLETON  With the summer construction season just around the corner, the town will likely not be purchasing a brand new excavator for the Highway Department with Chapter 90 road funds, as the Board of Selectmen voted Monday night to have Highway Superintendent Bud Chase stick with his old machine while exploring the possibility of buying a used vehicle at a lower cost.

“Whatever the board wants, I’ll do,” Mr. Chase said before the vote.

Residents defeated a Proposi­tion 2 1/2 debt exclusion at the polls in May, and since that vote Mr. Chase has turned to selectmen for direction. The problem, he explained, has not gone away and the 26-year-old machine has started to show its age.

“It’s been a great machine for the town and it’s saved the town a lot of money,” he said. More than $24,000 has been spent on the current excavator in repairs, Mr. Chase said, with most of that being spent in the last several years as parts have become obsolete and hard to find. The machine rolls out of the highway barn almost every day in the spring, summer and fall, and has been used for almost every town road project since its purchase, with the exception of the recent Route 101 milling and paving.

A new machine would cost about $218,000 after trading in the old excavator, valued at about $14,500, and the funds would come out of the town’s Chapter 90 road aid account. With $130,000 already committed to the first phase of the Royalston Road project, and another $82,000 already spent on Route 101, selectmen were unwilling to dip any deeper into that account and endanger any road improvement projects planned for the summer. However, they agreed the issue would need to be addressed.

In laying out the options, interim Town Administrator Bob Markel explained that the town could keep its current excavator — which is leaking hydraulic fluid and will likely need to be taken apart and rebuilt — for another year, search for a used vehicle, or purchase a new one using a combination of Chapter 90 funds and free cash (leftover funds from the previous year), which is expected to be certified at the beginning of next year.

“There are no good options here,” Mr. Markel said.

While the town could enter a five-year lease with Chapter 90 funds and pay the rest with free cash to limit some costs, the entire amount would need to be committed up front and returned to the Chapter 90 account only when the lease is paid through free cash next year.

Mr. Chase said he had looked at used vehicles as a possibility and found most were located in other parts of the country and would need to be shipped back to Templeton for a few thousand dollars.

“We can’t buy new,” said Selectman Diane Haley Brooks in support of seeking used equipment.

Ms. Brooks made a motion instructing Mr. Chase to continue his search for a used excavator and restricting the amount of money to be expended on the current machine. Originally, Ms. Brooks asked that no money be spent on repairs to the excavator, but she later amended her motion, leaving repairs up to Mr. Chase’s discretion.