By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – A Canadian County commissioner is moving ahead with plans to acquire a new oil distributor truck to “chip seal” roads.
County commissioners, at their Jan. 24th meeting, discussed plans to lease purchase a 2022 3,500-gallon oil distributor truck and a 2023 Kenworth T-370 cab chassis for Canadian County District 3.
Cost is $260,000 for the vehicle, which would be purchased on state contract from GW Van Keppel Company with financing through RCB Bank at a 2.49% interest rate.
The vehicle is “on order” and should be delivered in May, according to District 3 County Commissioner Jack Stewart.
“That should be about right for the chip-seal season,” Stewart said.
“It’s going to be a huge investment. This is a new direction we’re going in District 3.”
Having an oil distributor truck will allow District 3 crews to complete chip seal road projects faster, Commissioner Stewart noted.
“This is going to be a first step and give us an advantage to get a little bit more work done where we’re not so dependent on a contractor’s timing,” he explained. “Most of this type of work we’ve done in the past with contractors.
“We’ve got great bids … just the timing is not always perfect.”
Van Keppel has placed the order with the manufacturer to build the vehicle.
Commissioner Stewart has committed to buying the oil truck and equipment, expressing a desire to “lock down” the low interest rate.
“The vehicle is not available yet, so we really can’t sign the deal with the bank (until it arrives),” he said.
RCB Bank had the lowest rate among three quotes received to finance this lease purchase.
“I recognize that bank has financed equipment for our county before,” Canadian County Commission Chairman Dave Anderson said.
THIS AND THAT …
In other business at the Jan. 24th meeting, Canadian County Commissioners approved:
- Declaring 17 pieces of used equipment as surplus to sell in District 1. This list features military, dump and semi-trucks, trailers, motor graders, rotary cutters, pickup, van, water tank, ice machine, and horizontal grinder. With higher new equipment prices due to supply chain issues, District 1 Commissioner Marc Hader wants to capitalize on a strong used equipment market.
- A resolution naming Beth Lane, Dutton Circle, Kayce Street, and Rip Way for private roads in a new Yellowstone housing development near Jensen and Manning roads in District 3.
- A Central Oklahoma Workforce Development Area consortium operations agreement among governing bodies of Canadian, Cleveland, Hughes, Lincoln, Logan, Okfuskee, Oklahoma, Pottawatomie, and Seminole counties. The consortium started with Canadian, Cleveland, Oklahoma, and Logan counties. The other five counties joined several years ago.
- Designating Commissioner Stewart as representative and Chairman Anderson as alternate to the Central Oklahoma Workforce Development Area’s Board of Chief Elected Officials.
- Designating Jennifer Boyle and Tory Butler as requisitioning officers and Kimberly Killman and Tamara Storrs as receiving officers for the Canadian County Health Department.
- Paying $2,183.70 to Myers Engineering for engineering services on the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s Waterloo Road bridge project in District 1.
Canadian County Undersheriff Kevin Ward presented the weekly Canadian County Jail report showing inmate population totaling 245, with 213 prisoners in the El Reno detention center and 32 housed in other contracted counties.
