Neosho County to pursue trade-in and replacement plan for three graders; vendors give budget estimates

Neosho County road staff and a Foley equipment representative discussed a plan to replace three motor graders and asked the commission for budget guidance to phase purchases and trades.

At a June 17 work session, Jared, a Foley sales representative, presented financing scenarios and trade-in estimates, saying, “It would put your payments at, just over 49,000 annual payments.” County road staff and commissioners discussed whether to cycle machines on a 10-year/12,000-hour schedule or to shorten to about 10,000 hours to capture better trade values.

The county’s equipment reserve and outstanding lease purchase payments were reviewed. Jared told the group a new grader’s sale price ranges “anywhere from $3.65 to 4 and a quarter [million] depending on what you want,” and noted an all-wheel-drive model could add roughly $50,000 to a new machine’s price. County staff and the representative ran sample calculations at different terms; Jared said his example used a placeholder trade value and an interest rate the vendor tool defaulted to but that final payments would be lower with the county’s government rate and a finance manager’s calculations.

Road staff suggested maintaining one older machine as a spare and basing replacement decisions on maintenance history and hours. County staff and Jared agreed the immediate next steps are to identify which three machines to replace, get firm trade-in valuations, and produce hard numbers on 10-year and 8-year terms, with the representative returning with updated quotes and finance options. Jared said deferred first payments and negotiated deferral terms are commonly arranged and can be considered.

County staff characterized the next step as budgeting: using the county’s equipment reserve and possible Purple Wave sales proceeds to offset payments and aiming for a budgetary planning figure of about $48,000–$49,000 annually if the county acquires one all-wheel-drive grader and two rear-wheel-drive units.

The discussion included maintenance, “power-by-the-hour” service contracts that preserve resale value, and whether to sell some machines on auction sites to maximize proceeds rather than trading them in. Staff will return with a short list of candidate machines for replacement and firm financing scenarios for the commission to consider at a future meeting.

Direction vs. decision: the session produced a consensus plan to pursue quotes and trade valuations; no formal purchase or financing contract was approved during the work session.