County praises local purchase of 18 new vehicles; part of $1.1M package

The Yuma County Board of Supervisors are pleased that 18 new vehicles will be purchased locally. Chairman Tony Reyes said at a recent meeting that county officials prefer to buy from local merchants but they are limited by state law. Consequently, the supervisors “take a lot of heat” when they can’t buy locally, he said.

“We understand they are in a tight spot, and we’d like to do as much as possible to help them out,” Reyes said.

The board approved several major purchases totaling about $1.1 million, including 18 new vehicles for various departments, 89 portable and dash-mounted radios, and a street sweeper.

Supervisor Jonathan Lines also recognized that the vehicles are being purchased locally and noted the importance of trying to buy locally as much as possible.

As part of the adopted budget, funding for vehicle replacement was approved for several departments. The county received two bids for a variety of vehicles, including six new Malibu sedans for the Assessor’s Office, Justice Court 2, Justice Court 3, Public Fiduciary and Public Defender; four new Traverse

SUVs for the Recorder’s Office, Juvenile Court, Adult Probation, and Public Fiduciary; two new Silverado pickups for the Library District and Adult Probation; and three new Trax SUVs for Development Services and Engineering.

Fisher Chevrolet of Yuma was the lowest bidder, with a total cost of $373,867.

The supervisors also authorized the purchase of three new F-250 trucks with utility bodies for Facilities

Management and one new F-150 pickup for the Flood Control District.

Alexander Ford of Yuma was the lowest bidder, with a total cost of $182,321.

In other action, administration recently performed an analysis of the county’s radios and found 89 in “critical” need of replacement. The recommendation was to replace 40 portable radios and 22 dash-mounted radios for Juvenile Court and 19 portable radios and eight dash-mounted radios for Adult Probation, for a total of 89 new radios.

The portable radios will be replaced with the newer

APX4000 Model II and the dashmount radios will be replaced with the newer APX1500. The $278,324 purchase will be made from Motorola Solutions, under the state contract.

The supervisors also authorized the purchase of a Schwarze street sweeper from Balar Equipment in the amount of $282,714. The normal lifespan of a street sweeper is five to eight years, according to a staff report. The Public Works Department street sweeper that needs to be replaced is 16 years old and no longer cost effective to operate due to continual downtime for repairs.

In addition, the sweeper is not PM10 certified, the Environmental Protection Agency air quality measure for particle pollution, also called particulate matter. PM10 describes inhalable particles with diameters that are generally 10 micrometers and smaller.

The purchase of a new street sweeper will allow Public Works to maintain its street sweeping program for compliance with Arizona Department of Environmental Quality stormwater runoff and PM10 requirements, staff said.