A fire-damaged City of Lloydminster sander is getting replaced.
Kelly Lavoie, fleet manager, presented the item to council at the March 10 regular council meeting.
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The ask was for council to commit $164,000 from the equipment fleet reserve for the purchase of the slip-in sand spreader and to commit $346,000 from that same reserve for the tandem truck.
The unit suddenly caught fire on Dec. 3, 2024, while in service. Damage to the city’s fleet equipment was extensive and the city’s insurance adjuster completed an assessment, deeming it unrepairable. The driver of the vehicle made it out safely.
Insurance money drew some questions.
“I’m surprised the insurance amount we got back is just under 33 per cent. Usually we have our vehicles kept within, they’re well maintained and we keep them five years and we have all this equipment. But, the amount, $160,000 on a now $510,000 $508,000 purchase, I’m surprised by that,” said Coun. Michael Diachuk.
City clerk, Marilyn Lavoie, clarified the sander is insured as a mobile equipment item. Once the mobile equipment hits 10 years, they no longer get replacement.
“Had this happened one year earlier it would have been a much different number, but this had hit the 10-year mark,” she said.
Administration clarified the vehicle was a 2015.
Coun. Justin Vance inquired if it would make more sense to purchase all the vehicles as a package when the others are replaced in the near future.
“We need this truck replaced. Having this outside our fleet without a sander really impacts our ability to do our day-to-day job, so we need to replace this truck,” said Don Stang, executive manager of operations.
“As Kelly said, some of the tandems are going to be up for review here in the next year or two, and part of that process is to evaluate our current trucks.”
The fire-damaged sander was due to be replaced next year.
Council passed the motion to award the contract for the purchase of the slip-in sand spreader to Superior North America and the purchase of the tandem truck to Velocity Truck Centre.
Delivery of the units is expected by September of this year.
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