County getting new dump truck (08/21/07)

Jay County's Highway Department will have a new vehicle in its fleet for 2008.

Jay County Commissioners gave their blessing Monday to Ken Wellman, county highway supervisor, to begin the process for acquiring a new dump truck.

Permission has been granted to advertise the department's desire to purchase a new vehicle, Commissioner Milo Miller Jr. said.

Bid requests are expected to be sent out in September. If all goes according to plan the dump truck should be ready sometime in mid-January, he added.

"He's just going to get the specs together and throw it out there," Miller said of Wellman.

By bidding the purchase out in 2007 rather than waiting, commissioners might be able to get a better price on the truck, Miller said. It usually takes a few months for vehicles to arrive, so the sooner the county puts in a request to buy, the sooner it will have the new equipment.

The highway department typically gets a new truck every year for one area of the county, with the oldest vehicle being rotated out of commission, Wellman said. Jay County is split into 11 regions for road maintenance, and dump trucks are used for a variety of purposes within each 65-mile section.

"It's (for) general road work, hauling, grading and similar things like that," Wellman said.

Separately, commissioners granted a communications company access to a right of way along county road 900 South between 600 and 700 West to lay cables.

Earlier this month Verizon's request was denied because the company declined to relocate a utility box at the end of a driveway owned by southern Jay County residents Dolphus and Nancy Cooper.

"The box is still there," Jay County Auditor Freda Corwin said. "They said they can't move it without someone paying a fee."[[In-content Ad]]