Blenheim Purchases Loader, Road Work to Come

By Joshua Walther

BLENHEIM - On Wednesday evening, the Blenheim Town Board discussed with Highway Superintendent Andy Graves if they should purchase a new loader or not.

The current equipment that the Town owns is in rough shape, and due to the windshield falling out and possible injector fires, the Board has been wanting to replace it for the past few months.

On Wednesday, however, debate sparked across the table as Superintendent Graves laid out the best possible price for a new Volvo loader - $268,591 with their trade-in, which is valued at $23,000.

Other than outright purchasing, the Town also has the option to lease the equipment for $60,000 per year for a five year period, with a $1 buyback at the end.

Although Supervisor Don Airey said that Blenheim had the money saved up, the Board was still largely unsure of the purchase because of other incoming expenses, like a ten-wheeler truck thought to arrive later in the year.

Councilperson Renee Grabowski was the first to suggest an outright purchase, as she cited that the Town could finance a portion of the loader through CHIPS money.

Supervisor Airey conceded that point, and also admitted that their NYPA payment was another wildcard that they didn’t have numbers for, but he still wanted to table the matter for next month to take a better look at their situation.

“I like it when the Town has cash,” he said, noting that it would be best to have emergency funds to fall back on.

However, with the rest of the members in agreement with Mrs. Grabowski, the Board passed a motion for a full purchase of the new loader, with Supervisor Airey standing opposed.

In other news, Superintendent Graves also plans to do a complete restoration of several roads this coming summer.

After taking inventory with Supervisor Airey, he decided on four vital roads that need to be fixed before they can pave them, with those being Welch Road, Rogers Jones Road, Miller Road, and the lower portion of Ethel Wood Road.

Predicted to begin in June, Superintendent Graves stated that he and his crew will do the work to save on CHIPS, but they need to rent an excavator to rip up some of the worst roads.

He explained that their excavator rentals are usually done through Eklund at $5,000 a month, but Alta Equipment would offer one for $3,200 a month.

The Board recognized the setbacks that can come with just one month of renting, and so passed a motion to allow Superintendent Graves to move with the Alta excavator at the lower price.

“We gotta do this work,” said Supervisor Airey once the motion was passed. “These four roads are not ready to be paved yet.”