Aurora City Council approves purchase of five service department vehicles

Aurora City Council approved the purchase of five vehicles for a total of $257,173 and the upfitting of two of them for $125,507 at its Dec. 12 meeting. The total amounts to $382,680.

All of the 2023 vehicles are for the service department and will come from Montrose Ford. One is a Ford Explorer ($38,111), two are Ford F-350s ($51,765 and $49,630) and two are Ford F-600s ($61,874 and $55,793).

Service Director Harry Stark said his department has been hampered recently in receiving pricing for the new vehicles because of continued economic stresses on the automotive industry from COVID-related shortages.

“After repeated delays, Ford opened the ordering bank for 2023 vehicles in November,” he said.

“The department utilizes primarily cab and chassis trucks with upfitted bodies to accommodate the construction-related daily activities, and this type of vehicle is not found on local dealer lots as would be normal pickup trucks.

“The current makeup of city-owned medium to light duty vehicles in the service department is strictly Ford. For continuity, we hope to keep purchasing Ford-branded vehicles unless ordering delays continue to occur.”

The Explorer will replace a 2007 Ford Escape, which will be auctioned on govdeals.com. Also to be auctioned are 2008 and 2009 Ford F-250s and a 2009 Ford F-550.

Stark said pricing for the new vehicles was obtained through the Community University Education Purchasing Association, and prices for all the vehicles include rustproofing. He added the vehicles hopefully will be in service by next summer.

Meanwhile, a snow and ice package for one of the F-600s will be purchased for $90,510 from Henderson Products Inc. and a specialty crane package for the other F-600 will be purchased for $34,997 from Best Truck Equipment.

Police, service department contracts ratified

Three-year contracts with the unions representing service department workers and police dispatchers were ratified. Law Director Dean DePiero said contracts are now in place with three of the five bargaining units.

“The dispatchers’ contract expires at the end of this year so they were in negotiations already, and we recently completed the police officers’ contract,” said Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin.

“We provided police with a 4% raise in 2023, followed by 3% in each of 2024 and 2025. We also kept their health contributions the same as 2022 without raising them since the city had a fairly good year in the health arena.

“We wanted to extend the same benefits to the other union employees, but the service contract wasn’t up this year.

“Nevertheless, we reached out and were able to arrive at an agreement with basically the same terms, extending the current service contract for three years and putting workers on the same schedule as police, dispatchers and sergeants.

“The law director did an excellent job working this out.”

Other business

Council also awarded a $340,120 contract to Biss Nuss Inc. for the fabrication of a mechanical screen and screw compactor for the Central wastewater treatment plant. Biss Nuss was the lone bidder.

A section of the codified ordinances that increases fines for demolishing any landmarked building to not less than $10,000 and not more than $50,000 was amended. The respective amounts formerly were $1,000 and $25,000.

Changes in compensation for city workers Dora Gamez, Leah Griffith, Lee Harman, Megan Powell, Jennifer Burns, Erin Lumpkins, Sheila Martin, Jennifer Sweet, Margaret Tellalian and Alexandria Libertucci were approved.

Libertucci is replacing part-time Officer Vicki Yendriga as community relations coordinator, while DePiero explained the nine other clerical workers are no longer represented by a union and are no longer under contract, so legislation was necessary to allow them to be paid.

The mayor’s appointment of Brooke Anderson to the civil service commission was confirmed. The term runs through Dec. 31, 2028.

Council authorized donating $10,000 to the Ohio Brotherhood of Veterans LLC to support bringing the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall to Hartman Park from June 22 to 26, 2023.

Also OK’d were measures to dispose of a 2010 Horton/International ambulance that has logged about 132,286 miles and about 100 old traffic signals.

The money received for the ambulance will go toward the future purchase of an ambulance, while the signals disposal is a result of recent citywide signalization upgrades. All the items will be auctioned at govdeals.com.

An easement was accepted from Pulte Homes for the installation and maintenance of a water main along East Pioneer Trail west of Beljon Lane, and $50,000 was transferred from the general fund to the developers escrow fund.

According to Finance Director Tim Clymer, the $50,000 will be returned to the general fund early in 2023.

Heading to second reading is an ordinance supporting the planning commission’s recommendation to grant a conditional zoning certificate to allow Good Nature Therapy Services to operate an office with outdoor facilities at 239 E. Garfield Road.

Womer Benjamin announced the fire department’s annual blood drive will be Dec. 22 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the main fire station, while Town Hall will be closed Dec. 23 and 26 and Dec. 30 and Jan. 2 for the year-end holidays.

Contact the newspaper at auroraadvocate@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Aurora to purchase five service department vehicles for $257,173