Supervisors approve bulldozer

During a meeting Monday morning, the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of a new bulldozer for the county road department for the upcoming fiscal year.

The county plans to purchase the $180,750 bulldozer from the multinational firm Komatsu Limited.  County engineer Scott Cline said that Road Machinery and Supplies Company out of Cedar Rapids would service the equipment, which would include several additional upgrades. The department?s current dozer was purchased in 1984.

?The new equipment is quieter for the operator and more ergonomic than the other one, modern equipment can be used longer without back pain or hearing loss,? Cline said, adding that Komatsu would knock off $18,000 when the old dozer is traded-in.

?They will equip it and provide it to us about 12 weeks before the first of that year, so that we can actually put it in the field, but we don?t have to pay for it until the new fiscal year,? Supervisor Lee Dimmitt explained Tuesday during an interview.

Dimmitt said the county?s road fund would pay for the bulldozer.

?We appropriate money each year for equipment upgrades,? he said. ?The reason we do it that way is so we don?t have to replace equipment all at once.?

Dimmitt said the new dozer would come with a 60-month or 4,000-hour warranty.

?Scott said we would likely use the 60 months before we got to 4,000 hours,? he said.