Prescott Special City Council Meeting

The Prescott City Council met in the Prescott Senior Center dining room on Monday (1-13) and approved the lease of a 2024 garbage truck. Their main truck, a 2015 International, apparently needs a new engine. The truck has been in service to the city for 10 years and is on its second engine during that time frame. The city was relying upon an older vehicle as a backup while they repaired the 2015. That vehicle also has problems so the city has had to rely upon a patchwork solution. The new truck will be leased for two years for around $3,300 a month with the option to buy if the city so desires. They would simply need to give a year’s notice so a new truck could be built to replace it. The 2015 truck would have cost $30,000 to $40,000 to fix and not be worth that much in the end. International trucks have had significant issues to the point the company has begged cities to buy them again. Ronnie Sprouse said if the city approved the lease agreement he would speed up getting the truck to the city.

 It was a unanimous vote to approve the lease of the new truck.

With usual annual vehicle maintenance costs of $20,000 to $30,000 a year the city is not expected to lose money in the process. The money will come out of the landfill fund of which the city is the largest contributor.

On hand to advice the city were Bruce Bean (City Business Manager), Chris Hopper (Superintendent of Prescott City Sanitation and Street Department) and Ronnie Sprouse (Arkansas Municipal Equipment).