DECATUR — City council members voted at Monday's meeting to approve the lease of two new backhoes for the water and street departments.

The city only has one working backhoe that is shared between the water department and the street department, and the wastewater department also needs a backhoe on occasion. There is often a conflict because the departments need the backhoe at the same time and have to waste time waiting to use it, Mayor Bill Montgomery said.

The current backhoe has an open cab, which makes it uncomfortable to work in the cold and the heat and it lacks many of the safety features of newer machines, such as hydraulic braks, Montgomery said.

The city also has an 1970’s model backhoe, but it would take an estimated $10,000 to $15,000 for a new hydraulics system and transmission to get themachine running again, according to director of public works James Boston. The older machine has even fewer safety features.

Montgomery reported that he and Boston visited Riggs Caterpiller in Springdale. They found two suitable backhoes, a new John Deere and a used Caterpiller with only 290 hours of use and a clamshell bucket for picking up limbs and debris. Although Boston has enough money in his budget to buy one of the machines, Montgomery proposed leasing the machines for the next five years.

There are several advantages to leasing over buying, according to Montgomery. Since the economy is unstable, the city can turn the backhoes back in early without penalty if they need the money for something else. The warranty is also figured into the lease payments, so if something went wrong with the machines they would be fixed for free.

“He’s (Boston) got the money, the only reasonI don’t want to buy them outright is I don’t know what next year will bring,” Montgomery said, “My thinking is why not look at a lease and if something comes up turn the tractor back in.”

Payments on leasing the new John Deere backhoe would be $955.03 a month with an option to buy for $37,000 at the end of the lease. Payments on the used Caterpiller backhoe would be slightly less, with a buyout of $25,000.

The John Deere would cost $76,000 to buy and the Caterpiller would be about $10,000 less.

Another option Montgomery presented was buying only one backhoe for the water department and putting the current machine in the street department, but Boston pointed out the wastewater department is also in need of a backhoe.

The council voted to lease the John Deere and Caterpiller backhoes and wait until warmer weather to sell the inoperable backhoe.

News, Pages 12 on 12/15/2010