Rising prices prompts buying sooner rather than later.

By Jill Fennema

Last week, the Pipestone County Board of Directors approved the purchase of some new equipment for the county highway department.

The board approved the purchase of a John Deere excavator from RDO Equipment for $227,394. This was about $40,000 less than the similar machine from Ziegler Cat.  The board also approved the purchase of a gutter broom attachment from Zeigler Cat at a cost of $3,664. These purchases were allotted for in the 2022 budget.

“We are being told that prices are daily increasing,” Bergman said. He plans to try to come back  to the board in two weeks to cap off the rest of the county’s equipment purchases this month before prices go up too much.

Bergman also reported that the Edgerton grader is going to fall out of warranty in October.  Nick asked about purchasing an extended warranty for the machine. The bid for an extended warranty of 3 years/3,000 hours on the powertrain/hydraulic system was $26,266.

The machine is valued at $136,100 and the county has had it for five years. The machine has had some work done on the transmission, differential, and tandems that cost $41,000. That work was covered by the existing warranty.

Nick also said that there was a two-year option that was less expensive and the county could probably replace the machine before the two-year warranty expired.  If the county ordered a new machine in Sept. 2023, they should have that new machine by the end of Sept. 2024.

He will check on the shorter warranty, and get back to the board before a purchase is made.

Bergman also informed the board that he has some surplus equipment, including the county’s old sign truck, that he plans to offer to the towns and townships in the county before advertising them for sale.