Cookeville Public Works Officials got good news last week with a new roll-off garbage truck ready for immediate delivery.
And they saved money.
Cookeville Public Works Director Mary Beth Elrod said the city had planned for a late summer arrival before the call last week. Elrod said the new truck will help pick up trash from large roll-off containers, mostly found at construction sites and shopping centers.
“We have about eight to ten roll-offs that we have to service per day,” Elrod said. “And that’s to pick up those 30-yard containers with the large roll-off truck and then take those to the transfer station to be dumped and serviced. We also have these roll-offs at our recycling centers as well.”
The new roll-off truck will replace a 17-year-old truck. Elrod said the cost of the truck came in under budget. The city purchased the roll-off truck for an estimated $234,000.
“This was in our budget to replace this truck,” Elrod said. “We do try to replace our aging trucks within our sanitation fleet. We try to get one truck a year, and so as long as we can budget that, we try to make that happen to keep our fleet up and going, so that we don’t have as many repair costs with the older trucks.”
Elrod said the city expects to receive the truck at the end of this week.
“It will take us about two weeks to get it in service,” Elrod said. “We’ll have to get it insured, tags on it, we’ll have to get city logos on it. Get any kind of safety lighting, backup lighting on it that it may not come factory with.”
Elrod said the city will keep the 17-year-old roll of truck as a spare truck. Elrod said the new truck will also help the sanitation department pick up trash more efficiently.
