Celina Purchases New Excavation Gear

The City of Celina will purchase excavation equipment instead of leasing it.

The Board of Aldermen voted to purchase a Bobcat mini excavator Tuesday night. The city had been leasing the equipment at approximately $7,000 per year. The purchase will cost $28,000. Mayor Tonya Spears said since brand can cost up to $50,000, the purchase made sense.

“It’s compact and we use that for water line repairs, drainage issues, and you can get into folks yards without doing any damage because it has the rubber tracks,” Spears said. “It’s a very good piece of equipment that we’ll really utilize.”

Public Utilities Director Dusty Adams said the department already has two backhoes that are on their last leg.

“Both are pretty much wore out,” Adams said. “We’ve got one in the shop and it’s the newest one. We got an older one we used this week and it’s pretty much had it. It’s good for coal mix and putting coal mix out and stuff like that, but as far as digging it’s a lot of play and it’s all over the place.”

Adams said since the surrounding area is so rocky, keeping this equipment will be a huge help to the department. The city’s utility department already has slick and tooth buckets of varying sizes, making the job easier combined with the mini excavator to remove boulders.

Spears said the city has enough funds through the water department for the equipment.