West Central Reporter

At the Nov. 21 Macomb City Council meeting, council discussed purchasing new trucks for the city. The first motion studied was to buy a 2022 Ford F250 for the Public Works operations department for a price of just under $57,5000. It would replace the service truck, which is the one that responds to all the calls of issues around the city. It was budgeted for as a part of this fiscal year and one of the state bids had what was described as the "perfect" truck for the city,  as it was already outfitted with all the extra equipment and parts, and it was under the city’s budget.

The service truck is still is fairly good condition, but has accumulated a lot of miles on it, so the city will be putting it into use in a less harsh department of Public Works, and will trade in a very old truck in their fleet as part of the process of getting a new truck.

The second truck is a 2023 Ford F250 that will be for the city’s cemetery. It is a truck fit for towing and pulling around all the trailers and machines used in the cemetery. They were not able to find a state bid for this truck, but were able to find a dealership with a truck with good options for $40,900. The current cemetery truck is in very poor condition, with a bad transmission and no working heat.

“This has the service boxes in the bed that have all the different compartments for carrying all the tools that are needed,” Alice Ohrtmann, the Public Works director said, describing the first truck. “Whereas the other one is just a straight crew cab ¾ ton truck for hauling and pulling the trailers and all the various equipment that the cemetery needs. So they have two different functions.”

Council passed the motions to purchase the trucks.

Police Chief Jerel Jones attended the meeting to ask the council to add a sergeant position. The council voted in favor of it.

Treasurer Ronald Ward was absent from the meeting.

The council will meet again for the last time in 2022 at 5:15 p.m. on Dec. 19 at the Macomb City Hall at 232 East Jackson.