Steelville Board of Aldermen members voted to authorize the purchase of a $323,124 bucket truck to be used for maintenance, repair and public works purposes. The city will purchase the truck in cash, using funds from the city’s $1.3 million emergency cash reserves.

The truck will be purchased from Altec, a maker of utility vehicles and machinery. The new truck will have a 66-foot reach and be used to repair and maintain electrical feeder lines that run between electrical substations in the city of Steelville and Steelville High School. Beyond maintaining electrical infrastructure, a new, higher-reaching truck will also allow city workers to conduct routine tree-trimming across the city.

Public Works Supervisor Jason Evans said that the new bucket truck is a “very needed item,” which will replace the city’s current bucket truck, a 1987 model also purchased from Altec, which Evans said is in a state of disrepair.

According to Evans, Altec will not service the current truck, a single-cab 55-footer, due to its age. He added that the current truck is effectively unusable because it is “locked out” of repairs by Altec.

City Aldermen considered two purchase options for the vehicle.

The first, a municipal lease purchase, would allow the city to lease-to-own for either 60 or 96 months. According to Evans, a 60-month lease would bring the total purchase price to around $383,124 once interest is accounted for. For a 96-month lease, the final purchase price would be roughly $423,124.

Under a second option, which the aldermen ultimately approved, the city agreed to purchase the vehicle outright using money from the city’s emergency fund and $80,000 that the electric department had already budgeted for the purchase of a vehicle. A total of $243,124 would come from the emergency fund, allowing it to stay above the $1 million emergency fund balance required by the city’s insurance agreement.

Steelville Mayor Jason Ward said he was hesitant to dip into emergency reserves, but agreed that with winter weather on the way, the city needs a service vehicle as soon as possible.

“I’m a little remiss to remove that money from our emergency fund, but I will agree 100 percent that if there’s a purchase that’s going to be an emergency, it’s going to be this,” Ward said, adding that he sees the value of purchasing the vehicle outright. “We’re going to save ourselves money in the long run.”

Alderman Ward 1 Curtis Crouch agreed that purchasing the truck constituted an emergency.

“If a windstorm comes through, takes some poles and stuff down out there, we’re going to spend way more than what a bucket truck costs,” Crouch said. “Absolutely we do have the funding in what we call the emergency fund, which technically this is kind of an emergency.”

Crouch proposed that the electric department increase its monthly contribution to the city’s emergency fund from $5,000 to $8,500 in order to pay back the cost of the bucket truck over five years.

With the purchase authorized, Evans said it could still take six or eight months to receive the vehicle. Until then, if there was significant damage to electrical poles or electrical wiring that required a bucket truck to repair, the city would have to work with a contractor or even request assistance from another municipality, which it has done in the past.

The Board of Aldermen urged Evans to seek a cash discount for the bucket truck.

“We have a motion to purchase this vehicle for $323,142 or less if we give a big bag of money,” Ward said.