Sangamon Sun

At the Feb. 21 meeting of the City of Lincoln council, council was presented with two different purchase proposals for vehicles. 

The first was a purchase order for a Ram 5500 bucket truck for the public works department. Walt Landers from the Public Works Department explained that they had a truck in line with the distributor, All Trucks USA, but they sold it to someone else. 

Landers said Public Works was offered a replacement vehicle that was very similar, but had a fiberglass bed which he said would not be a good mix with the forestry work the city would be using the truck for. 

The Public Works Department asked council to amend the purchase ordinance and make it broader from the $75,356 approval for a specific truck, to a general purchase of a truck under $80,000 whenever the city staff finds one that meets their needs within those requirements. 

After consideration, council made the amendment and approved the motion, allowing Landers to expedite the search and make an immediate purchase to prevent this from happening again.

The second item regarding vehicles for the city was the purchase of nine new vehicles for the police department. The total cost of the nine new cars would be $366,060. The city previously had a lease program for vehicles in the police fleet where they would be rotated out within 10 years of age, however with interest rates and the limited availability of vehicles, this round was decided to be a full-on purchase.

City treasurer Charles Conzo explained the financing.

“Well, I guess the interest rate is going to be higher no matter how you do it,” Conzo said. "So what we've done – and we'll have the details on this for you at the next committee of the whole meeting – but what we have tried to do is instead of a conventional bank loan like we've used in the past, it's called a debt certificate. We can obtain a lower interest rate for that because to the investor, to the person getting the interest or getting payment on the debt certificate, that interest is tax deductible, whereas with a conventional bank loan it would not be. It's a municipal debt certificate with a tax deductible interest. So that's going to save us money on the interest.”

The vehicles will be Ford Police Interceptors, a special build of Ford Explorers with heavier suspensions, better equipment, and some other modifications. Both the county sheriff’s department and state police have used them and said they had great experiences with the models.

Council will meet again at 7 p.m. on Monday at 700 Broadway St.