May 3, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
Six new pickup trucks!
DeKalb County Road Supervisor Danny Hale is asking the county to fund six new pickup work trucks to replace aging high mileage, high maintenance trucks in the fleet currently used for daily operation. All but one of the trucks are gas burners. The other is a diesel.
Hale addressed the county budget committee with his request Tuesday night at the courthouse.
The cost to purchase six new trucks with safety lights is figured to be $247,776 and that is the amount Road Supervisor Hale is asking the county to appropriate.
The budget committee took no action Tuesday night. If budgeted, the money would most likely have to come from the county’s capital projects fund.
To support his request, Road Supervisor Hale provided committee members with paper copies of photos showing the odometer on eight of the trucks he currently has in the fleet with the highest mileage including a 2004 Chevy truck with 308,200 miles; a 2003 Chevy truck with 255,199 miles; a 2005 Chevy truck with 211,679 miles; a 2002 Chevy truck with 252,158 miles; a 2000 Chevy truck with 347,965 miles; a 1998 Diesel truck with 287,526 miles; a 1999 Chevy truck with 223,768 miles; and a 1995 Chevy truck showing 196,232 although Hale said the odometer on this truck is wrong and that it actually has many more miles on it.
“For us to get six new trucks, it would be around $223,776 and for them to have safety lights added on would be another $24,000. Each truck is roughly $37,296 and the safety lights for each truck is about $4,000. A total for the trucks and safety lights would be roughly $247,776,” said Road Supervisor Hale.
“What I am asking for is plain 2 door, single cab, work bed, 4-wheel drive pickup work trucks,” said Hale.
Even if the county were to approve the request, Hale said it might be 2024 before he could take delivery on them.
“Wilson County gets state bid trucks every year and they can’t give me 2024 prices yet and it will be 2024 before we can get any of the vehicles. I can order them when they know they have the state bid, but they will take names this month. They told me for 2023 prices add 20% but the actual prices may be less or more,” said Hale.
“I would also like to add the safety lights on the trucks because we have never had anything on trucks for safety whatsoever and we are on the roads every day. I would like a light bar put across the top of each truck like LEDs so we can see better when we are cutting trees at night around electric lines with an amber light on the back of it for safety reasons,” said Hale.