10-12-2016 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO: Mayor Keis and Members of City Council FROM: Bill Dircks, Public Works Director DATE: October 6, 2016 RE: Purchase of Two Lawn Mowers Large Area Mower The City currently has a Jacobsen 311T large area mower. It was purchased in 2013 but has been prone to repairs and has cost a lot of money over the past two summers. The service and support provided by the dealer has been underwhelming as well. Staff has decided it would be best to move the replacement of the mower up to 2017. A Toro Groundsmaster 4000-D was demoed during the summer and everyone who tried it felt it was a much better lawn mower than the Jacobsen. The wings pull up higher to make it easier to travel over the road with and the machine cut very nicely. The mower is available on a national cooperative purchasing site, National IPA, and also through the MN State Purchasing Contract. The National IPA price is actually less than the MN State Contract price so staff is working with MTI Distributing to purchase the mower through the National IPA contract. There is a hang up with the registration process but MTI is confident the mower can be purchased at the National IPA price. The MN Contract price for the mower is $61,517.60 and the National IPA price is $60,133.45. We would also be adding a mulch kit for $1,144.07 and a road light kit for $724.91. That is a total cost of $62,002.43. The price of the mower will increase for the 2017 contracts so staff is proposing to purchase the mower now to take advantage of the reduced price. MTI Distributing has guaranteed the warranty for the mower will not start until next spring when the machine starts getting used. MTI has offered $15,000 for the Jacobsen 311T as well as $7,500 for another, older Jacobsen 511 mower that has been converted to a rink sweeper. The sweeper is being replaced by a Toolcat and broom that is already in the fleet so it makes sense to trade it in. $55,000 was budgeted for the large area mower in 2017, which was figured to be $60,000 less $5000 for trade-in of the old mower. The net cost will be $39,502.43. Z-Turn Mower The City has budgeted for a new Z-turn lawn mower in 2016 to replace the 2009 Bobcat mower. Staff was able to get one more summer out of the Bobcat mower but feels now is the time to replace the mower. Staff demoed two different Toro Z-turn mowers this summer. One was a gas mower and the other was a diesel. The consensus was that the gas mower would be better for our operations and it is cheaper in price than the diesel mower. In this case, the price quoted by Tri-State Bobcat was less than