Purchase Of New Gator Approved By Bloomsdale Aldermen; Park Improvement Discussions Stall Out
Although Mayor Paul Monia missed the January 14 Bloomsdale Board of Aldermen meeting, his wishes were carried out.
Monia had expressed his strong desire to see the board authorize the purchase of a new John Deere XUV835M HVAC crossover utility vehicle.
The vehicle, commonly known as a “Gator,” was offered to the city by Wm. Nobbe and Company for $25,651. That was with a 13 percent municipal discount from its list price of $29,485, according to material sent by the dealer.
Monia added some thoughts on the matter onto city clerk Lynnette Randoll’s meeting notes. He said the old Gator was bought in 1998 with a grant from Grant’s Farm and that no equipment has been purchased since it and a tractor were bought that year.
He said the new Gator should be useful in upcoming projects and should give the city about 30 years of service.
The dealer declined to take the 22-year-old Gator as a trade-in. The Bloomsdale Volunteer Fire Department also declined to accept it as a gift. It will either be donated to an organization who could use it or be sold by sealed bids.
“It’s bad,” Randoll said of the current Gator. “You almost would go faster if you pushed it.”
When Ward 2 Aldermen Brandon Shortt and Chris “Sappy” Basler expressed concern about the price of the new Gator, Randoll said, “He [Monia] knew that you were going to say that, but he said, ‘This is the piece of equipment that we need.’”
LITTLE PROGRESS ON PARK PROECT
Shortt reported that going has been slow on the youth park project Monia had assigned him.
At the September 2019 meeting, Monia asked Shortt to come up with a plan to develop part of the park to appeal to the 8 to 14 age group, with up to $100,000 to spend. His deadline to present a plan was to be the January meeting.
“I’ve had some feedback, but I haven’t really received a whole lot,” Shortt said. “Maybe five or six or seven people have been engaged with it, and no one has been too excited. The most excitement we had was the one guy who recommended something different in the playground or the discussion for the pavilion or the walking path. We’ve had it in the paper, but nobody’s ever really said it’s great or it’s bad. I shouldn’t say it’s lackluster, but it’s not really receiving any big accolades. I was going to discuss tonight how far we want to go with this.”
With Monia absent, it was agreed to table the issue until the next meeting.
See complete story in the January 22 edition of the Herald.
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