BENTONVILLE — The Benton County Road Department is evaluating it’s fleet of vehicles, looking to replace worn and aging equipment, including buying up to 10 new road graders.
Gary Black, the county’s public services administrator, told the Quorum Court on Thursday the department has eight or nine trucks. Black called the vehicles “rust buckets.” Some of the vehicles are 15 years old.
Black said he will ask for replacements for those trucks and as many as 10 road graders.
County Judge Bob Clinard said Friday the county has fallen behind in vehicle replacement and now has to face the cost of replacing a number of graders at one time.
“They bought a bunch of graders four or five years ago and were supposed to be replacing one or two graders a year, but they didn’t do that,” Clinard said. “Now we’ve got some that have 11,000 hours or more on them and they need replacing.”
Clinard said a “ballpark estimate” puts the cost of a new road grader somewhere around $200,000.
Marsha Graham, the county’s properties manager, said the last new road grader was bought in 2008 for $167,878. Graham said the county bought 11 road graders in 2006, paying $192,848 each.
Clinard said two companies have been asked to estimate the value of the road graders that need replacing to see what they could be traded-in for or sold. He said a “guesstimate” put the value of the graders between $500,000 and $700,000.
Tom Allen, chairman of the Quorum Court’s Finance Committee, said he’d have to wait and see how the county could handle the cost of the new equipment.
“I’m all for giving our people good roads, but we can’t blow our budget in the process,” Allen said.
Black said the department has graded 174 roads since the beginning of the year, some of them several times if snow removal work is counted. Another 51 roads have had mowing or brush cutting work done and 62 roads had other work done.
Black said the county spent $39,154 on material for road repair and $27,934 repairing vehicles and equipment. Black estimated the cost to the county for snow removal and related work from the recent winter storms at more than $435,000.