The Fisher County Commissioners Court met on Monday, where although some decisions were unanimous political tensions kept the court polarized on others, and with the county’s only bulldozer now inoperable, the table is set for commissioners to resume propositions for replacing the machine that officials failed to agree upon two years ago.
On Monday’s agenda was the consideration of where to allocate $17,500 of charitable contributions received through the Amadeus tax abatement agreement. This is an annual payment wind energy company BayWa r.e. pays the county, which is typically dispersed to any number of community or charitable organizations.
This year, with the cost of fuel on the rise combined with what is shaping up to be potentially busy fire season, Commissioner Preston Martin suggested the full amount be donated to the Fisher County Fire Department. The vote in favor of the donation was unanimous.
Ironically, as the court worked down the agenda items, Monday’s meeting was reflective of the meeting in August 2020, when the county faced many of the same issues stemming from similar situations near two years ago.
The county has budgeted funds to contribute to the fire department budgets since the mid-1980s. Facing increased costs and a busy fire season in 3030, the court agreed to increase the annual amount to a total of $36,000 in August 2020. Having battled fires alongside the department in mid-August, the commissioners also discussed the inadequacies of the county’s bulldozer and considered ways to replace the aging machine.
Shortly after arriving on-scene to the august 2020 fire, the county’s bulldozer broke down, as the county has seen continuously rising repair costs for the machine for years, with Commissioner Gordon Pippin saying then, “It’s not dependable at all, and the trailers we have are just junk.”
The court discussed at length the possibility of replacing the dozer. Pippin proposed each commissioner sell one of three maintainers in their respective precincts. By doing so, it would probably generate to cover roughly half of the anticipated $200,000 cost of a new dozer.
Martin had four maintainers at the time, with one up for auction. He aggreged to contribute the proceeds of the sale to the dozer cost. The commissioners continued to debate the specifics of how to arrange the funds and which maintainers to keep, the discussions stalled, and no action was ever taken.
However, the court will soon be facing the issue again, as Pippin informed the court on Monday that after recent work done in Precinct 4, the dozer needed significant repair work. The county spent $12,000 repairing the machine in February alone.
“We’ve done nothing but dump money and dump money. We could have bought a new one for what we’ve spent on repairs,” said Pippin, recommending the county sell the machine after it returns from the shop.
Pippin explained that after the repairs in February, he got about an hour of work before it started leaking oil from the exhaust. He said that while the company agreed to fix the current problem at no cost, Pippin said it would be in the best interest of the county to sell the dozer now before it cost the county any more money.
His fellow commissioner agreed, which will force the court into resuming discussions about replacing the dozer and how to cover the cost or find an alternative solution for when the equipment is needed. There was no discussion on Monday whether the commissioner might consider revisiting the plan to sell maintainers to offset the cost.
Currently, the county carries insurance on a total of 12 maintainers, with precincts one through four having three each. It is possible the court will discuss how to proceed during the April meeting, along with other business tabled this week.