Rosetown staff review options for new vac truck-flusher purchase
By Ian MacKay
Town staff recently inspected two different trucks capable of vacuuming up liquid and flushing out sewer mains, councillors learned during their Oct. 6 meeting.
Bob Bors and some members of the Public Works Department had examined a third truck about a month before the council meeting.
The town is to receive almost $80,000 from the federal government as the first instalment of a grant worth about $900,000 from an infrastructure fund to buy the vac truck-flusher, according to a federal message received in mid-September.
The two most recent demonstrations happened two days apart. One was brought through town, where staff inspected it, and then they went to North Battleford to see a two-year-old unit in action, Bors told councillors.
The company that made that one doesn’t have a demonstration unit, and this “was the best demo” they saw, he said.
The city’s transportation director showed the Rosetown visitors its features, including “the options he got and why,” as well as “stuff they thought they would like and didn’t like,” Bors said.
They also spoke with two equipment operators and watched as they cleaned out a sewer connection, he added.
“It was nice learning the pros and cons of it from the guys that are actually running it,” rather than hearing a pitch from a salesperson, Bors said.
Two major companies make such machines that operate digitally, while the one in North Battleford had toggles, switches and knobs, he said in response to a question from Mayor Trevor Hay. Bors said he prefers that setup, calling it “a simpler system for us to work on as the truck ages.”
However, that company has been building such vehicles for only nine years, so there’s no long-term record of its products, he said. The other companies have been building combination units since the 1970s and ’80s, he added. All three can provide trucks with “nice options.”
Bors said he’d received one price quote for a vehicle with the options he wants. Once ordered, it will take close to a year for the vehicle to arrive, no matter which company the town chooses.
When the trucks were demonstrated, company staff said prices wouldn’t be affected by United States tariffs, but the quote he received said tariffs “may come into effect,” Bors said. The town will have to ensure that the price quoted when the unit is ordered is the final price, he added.
The machine “will provide critical backup in the event of a lift station failure, enhance worker safety by enabling the dewatering and daylighting of hazardous utility lines, and serve as a transfer pump during flooding events or sanitary system disruptions,” according to an earlier message.