By Mark Squibb
The Town of Bay Roberts is borrowing $344,836 from BMO at a five-year, fixed rate of 4.62 per cent to buy a single-axle dump truck with front end plow and a sand and salt spreader.
The total cost of the vehicle is $380,263, HST included. Some $40,000 of the purchase will be covered by GST and HST rebates. The monthly loan payment is $3,593.
The Town had been renting a truck at a cost of about $35,000 annually. That rental will no longer be required following acquisition of the new truck from lone bidder Havey and Company.
The truck will be for the first new vehicle purchase since the mid-2010’s.
The purchase will require some sacrifice on the part of the Town’s recreation department, as staff had only budgeted $250,000 for the truck – well below the final asking price.
The Town had also budgeted $125,000 for a crew cab 4x4 pick up for the recreation department. Council voted to cancel that tender and instead put the money towards the purchase of the loader.
“This is what we call prudent financial management – we made the decision to cancel the truck while the Director of Recreation was on vacation,” quipped chief administrative officer Dave Tibbo at last month’s public council meeting.
Mayor Geoff Seymour said the change was necessary.
“As stated in many budget speeches, the budget is a living document, and it can be changed and adapted when need be, and in this instance, it needed to be changed and adapted,” said Seymour.
Councillor Dean Franey was critical of the wide discrepancy between the budgeted cost and the actual cost.
“I will say, because there’s such a big discrepancy between what we budgeted and the actual cost, during budget times we may need to do a better job getting budgetary quotes when we’re putting something on a budget,” said Franey. “In my employment, I do budget quotes all the time for people. Usually, if anything, the budget quote is usually a little bit higher than the actual purchase quote. So, with such a big discrepancy in the opposite direction, maybe we need to do a better job getting budgetary quotes for budget time when we’re looking at large purchases.”
In defense of staff, Tibbo blamed the high cost on “a dictator in the United States,” noting the price of the truck had increased nearly 40 percent over what was originally projected. He added staff also decided to go with a higher end salt spreader than what was originally budgeted for, which added to the truck’s bottom line.
“I do agree with what council is saying,” said Tibbo. “I’d rather have a budget that’s a bit higher than lower.”
Council was unanimous both in the decision to borrow for the dump truck and cancel the tender for the pickup.
Due to manufacturing wait times, the Town may not actually receive the truck until 2027.
