Sparta Aldermen Approve New Brush Truck Purchase

Sparta has purchased a new brush truck after facing several mechanical issues with an existing vehicle.

City Administrator Brad Hennessee said the new vehicle is in service and will allow the old truck to be fully repaired. Hennessee said the city had to put several “emergency band-aids” on the truck to keep brush pickup on schedule.

“This was an emergency purchase, because of the situation that we found ourselves in,” Hennessee said. “We rented private trucks for two weeks to get caught up on the brush and that was very expensive but everything involved in that was stopgap measure.”

Hennessee said the purchase will also allow the city to start junk pickups. Something that Sparta has not offered in the past.

Hennessee said the city paid $193,500 for the new truck. Hennessee said the unbudgeted purchase was expensive but was in the best interest for the city based on availability.

“The next delivery date was in January, and we’re just afraid to wait six months,” Hennessee said. “The thing that we have ran into is some of these delivery dates on these trucks, we will reach that date, and they’ll tell us that its been pushed back. We can’t take a chance on that. We’ve got the fall brush collection coming up.”

Hennessee said the city also has a dealer nearby that can work on the new truck. Sparta began the search for a new truck in May. The Board of Aldermen approved this year’s budgeted repair money to help make the purchase.