Stormwater utility set to buy new street sweeper

The Chesterton Stormwater Utility is looking to be the owner of a brand-new street sweeper.

At its meeting Monday night, the Stormwater Management Board voted 3-0 to authorize Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg to go out to bid for the sweeper, with the bids to be opened at the board’s next meeting, May 18.

Schnadenberg has estimated the cost of the sweeper at $135,000 and had originally asked the board at its last meeting to consider splitting a five-year lease-purchase agreement with the Street Department, with the Stormwater Utility making the first two annual payments and the Street Department, probably from its Local Roads & Streets budget, making the final three. Schnadenberg noted at the time that the 13-year-old sweeper now in his fleet is unable to sweep more than half the town in the space of a year, and added that street sweeping is an MS4 mandate.

The board took no action at that meeting, but at the Town Council’s last meeting in March the suggestion was strongly made that, in fact, the Stormwater Utility really ought to bear the entire cost of acquiring a new sweeper.

President Thomas Kopko did broach the possibility of paying for the sweeper with cash on the barrel, rather than spending an estimated $13,000 to $17,500 in accumulated interest under a lease-purchase. “The cash is available,” he said, “and I would rather pay up front for the whole thing and save the interest and use those funds for other projects.”

The board agreed to consider Kopko’s suggestion after the bids are opened.

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