Park board OKs purchase of mowers

Portland Street and Parks Department is getting some new lawnmowers.

The city’s park board at its meeting Tuesday approved the purchase of two new Country Clipper mowers from Portland’s AMX Motorsports for $7,862. The grass cutters will be added to the department’s four-mower rotation alongside two Grasshopper mowers it purchased around this time last year.

Park manager Matt Shauver explained that the department trades in mowers after two years to keep their rotation fresh while retaining values for the trade-ins. The now two-year-old mowers, both 72 inches, were traded in for the quicker 60-inch Country Clipper mowers.

“They just scalp too hard,” Shauver said about the 72-inch mowers, which the department was trying out for the first time.

The other bid Shauver gathered was for two Grasshopper mowers totaling $11,200 from Hull Brothers of Fort Recovery.

Reviewing the goals the department presented to the board at January’s meeting, Shauver also presented two quotes to have the roof of the amphitheater at Hudson Family Park power washed and sealed. Fort Recovery’s Al Warnock Painting had the lowest bid at $3,400, though the board agreed to go with the slightly pricier Bruce Smith for the job at $3,638 because he is based in Jay County.

“Even though it is $238 more, we want to support our local businesses,” board member Brian Ison said.

Shauver also told the board that the department is paying $1,280 to Bluffton’s Aquatic Management Inc. for it to fix and reinstall the fountainheads at Hudson Family Park.

“I think they’ve been in the water so long that they need some attention,” Shauver said, adding that the electrical wires for the fountain often get kinked.

In other business, board members Giles Laux, Glen Bryant, Chris Compton and Ison, absent Shauna Runkle, tasked Ison with helping to create a five-year strategic plan for the park board.