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515 Little Canada Road, Little Canada, MN 55117-1600 <br />(65"1) 766-4029 / FAX: (651) 766-4048 <br />www.ci.little-canada.mn.us <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Mayor Blesener & Members of City Council <br />FROM: 13111 Dircks, Public Works Superintendent <br />Jim Morelan, Parks and Recreation Director <br />Derek Anderson, Parks Maintenance Supervisor <br />DATE: October 3, 2014 <br />MAYOR <br />Bill Blesener <br />COUNCIL <br />Rick Montour <br />John Keis <br />Michael McGraw <br />Shelly Boss <br />ADMINISTRATOR <br />Joel R. Hanson <br />RE: Purchase of Lawnmower and Yard Waste Collection Equipment <br />The Parks Department currently has one large area mower, a Z -turn mower, and a walk <br />behind mower. The walk behind mower is very heavy, more difficult to transport, and <br />not user friendly. Subsequently, it does not get used very often. It currently takes two <br />operators about three days using the large area mower and the Z -turn mower to mow the <br />entire City. Staff is proposing to replace the walk behind mower with another Z -turn <br />mower. Doing that should enable the Parks staff to mow the City in two days using three <br />pieces of equipment. The Z -turn mower can be driven to most locations in the City <br />making it more efficient than the walk behind mower. <br />The Trac -Vac trailer unit used to pick up leaves in the spring and fall has a bad motor that <br />needs to be replaced. The cost to replace the motor is around $600. The unit itself is in <br />fair -to -poor condition and takes quite a beating getting hauled to the dumping area. <br />Rather than replace the Trac -Vac staff is recommending adding a bagging system to each <br />of the Z -turn mowers. One of the mowers will have a set of three bags that fill up with <br />yard waste and then can be dumped in the back of a truck, a dumpster, or on the ground. <br />The other mower will have a bin that dumps from the bottom with an electric switch. <br />The bin can be dumped on the ground or into a dumpster with a gate on one end. <br />The bagger and bin will eliminate the Trac -Vac and result in less maintenance compared <br />to the Trac -Vac. The Trac -Vac has a motor, wheels, axles, and other moving parts. The <br />bagging unit and bin have fewer parts that could require maintenance. Using the bagger <br />and bin should be more efficient when picking up leaves since they can be dumped on <br />site rather than transported to a dump site every time they are filled. The combined <br />capacity of the bagger and the bin is roughly equal to the capacity of the Trac -Vac. In <br />