By Megan Kelley
Clarkston News Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — The Independence Township Department of Public Works will soon be receiving new trucks after the Township Board of Trustees unanimously accepted quotes and approved purchases at its March 19 regular meeting.
Public Works Director, David McKee was in attendance to walk the board through both requests beginning with the purchases of two all wheel drive vans to replace two standard pickup trucks.
The purchase is included in the DPW’s 2024 budget and would total $113,350.
“Currently, the vehicles that we have right now are inadequate for the employees that these are going to be assigned to. Specifically, our Facilities and Operations Technician and one of our Water Treatment operators. Both of those job titles require them to have tools on hand, material on hand, parts on hand and quite frankly a pickup truck is not getting it. You can’t have your tools outside in bad weather, they have to jump in the back of their trucks to get things,” McKee said.
Township documents state that the current trucks being used will be eventually disposed of or moved to seasonal vehicle use for either the DPW or Safety Path Department.
Also at the meeting, McKee received unanimous approval from the board for a budget amendment to purchase a new three quarter ton pickup truck for the township’s Safety Path superintendent as well as dispose of two older vehicles that the Safety Path Department owns.
“This is needed because we need to have vehicles in the DPW that we own. Like I mentioned, we’ve leased quite a few, but we need to own some. What we do with those (is) we rotate the vehicles and we keep the best old vehicles we have,” McKee said.
The board approved the purchase of a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD 4WD pickup truck in the amount of $51,220.
“We’ll be set for quite some time,” McKee said. “I think we’ll be in pretty good shape for some time.”
Both the truck and two vans are expected to be delivered sometime later this year depending on the manufacturer’s production schedule.