The Regional District of Nanaimo board will spend $231,000 on a new tractor-type vehicle for solid waste services.
The regional district’s current vehicle, a 1992 CAT-IT18F, has 17,500 operating hours on it and at a Oct. 24 meeting, the board green lighted the purchase of a John Deere 544KII wheel loader from Brandt Tractor Ltd.
Larry Gardner, regional district manager of solid waste services, said the new vehicle will be used at the Church Road transfer station in Parksville. The new vehicle will be used to sort garbage, Gardner said.
“The waste, both garbage and organics, get dumped on a tipping floor and then it gets scooped up and dropped into trailers at the end of the tipping floor,” said Gardner.
He anticipates the vehicle will last 10 years.
The regional district had set aside $295,000 from its 2017 budget for replacement and the remaining $64,000 will go back into reserves, Gardner said.
The regional district went to tender in July and Brandt Tractor Ltd. was one of seven proponents that responded.
reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
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