Peachtree City will lease six trucks and a new, smaller, vehicle for the city manager under a pilot program that includes maintenance conducted by the leasing company.
It will cost the city a bit under $30,000 for just one year, with no future year commitments, said City Finance Director Paul Salvatore.
“Basically for the price of purchasing one vehicle, we can test seven vehicles in the pilot program with the hope of seeing some savings realized,” Salvatore said.
The idea is to decrease fuel costs by using more fuel efficient vehicles while also diverting auto maintenance away from the city’s fleet maintenance staff so they can focus more on public safety vehicles and other essential equipment, officials have said.
The city will be downsizing two of the trucks that are being replaced from the Ford F-250 size to the F-150 size. The deal also replaces two other F-250s and a Ford Ranger with full-size equivalents, and also the city manager’s 2004 Ford Explorer will be downsized to a Ford Fusion SE.
The trucks will have a V-6 engine instead of an 8-cylinder, but will have the same towing capacity of the previous models with additional fuel efficiency, said Public Services Director Mark Caspar.
If the pilot program works well, the city can look later at expanding the process to command staff vehicles for public safety work. Emergency vehicles and those used for pursuit such as police patrol cars, however, would have to come from a different company because Enterprise does not offer those types of vehicles due to liability concerns.
In other business, council voted to pay $14,403 from the general fund reserves to pay for contract janitorial services for the Kedron Fieldhouse and Aquatic Center. The facility is open seven days a week for 80 hours, but lost its dedicated maintenance staffer when the position was moved to the city’s public services division.
The low bidder for the work, Unique Cleaning Service of Marietta, currently performs the same work for the FAA Tracon building in Peachtree City, and it got a glowing recommendation from staff there, officials said.
Council also postponed acting on a lease-to-own proposal for 153 computer workstations and software from Dell. City staff wanted more time to look at further cost savings to be achieved, Salvatore said.
