Vehicle, Equipment Purchases Puts Strain on City’s 2018 City Contingency Fund

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown will have to spend down the remaining amount of money in its 2018 contingency fund due to the need to purchase a piece of heavy equipment for the Department of Public Works.

The Jamestown Post-Journal is reporting that during Monday night’s city council work session, DPW director Jeff Lehman said that a major snow storm that hit the area at the end of November led to the end of one of the city’s four trackless vehicle machines that are currently in its fleet of vehicles. Lehman said the machines are not only used to help with snow removal, but for other tasks throughout the year. He said that because of their frequent and heavy use, the city is unable to make due with just three of them.

The cost for a new trackless machine is $138,000 and to pay for the replacement later this month, the city will spend the remaining amount of its contingency fund. Just over $43,000 remains in the fund, so the remaining cost of the machine will be covered by funds from the end of the year over/under account, which is expected to see a surplus due to city revenue – primarily from Sales tax – coming in higher this year than expected.

The city contingency account started the year with $250,000. The majority of that money ($148,530) will have been put toward vehicle and equipment purchases for the city DPW and Parks department.  In February the council used $30,135.30 to purchase a Toro Reelmaster 311-D Reel mower for the Park Department. In June $31,747 was used to purchase a Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Pickup Truck for the DPW. And just last month $43,648 was allocated toward the purchase of a new crew truck for the DPW.

The other contingency allocations for this year was $87,000 in May toward unanticipated renovation work at Russell E. Diethrick Jr. Memorial Park and just over $14,000 for landfill material disposal.

The council will act on on allocating the $43,000 from the contingency account for the purchase of the new trackless machine during its December voting session on Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in city hall.