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Fleet Maintenance Issuses

Police Cars

Town Board, 3/26/2012

Supervisor Grace advised the board that during a meeting of the Fleet Committee he learned from Don Gaffney, the head mechanic in the Central Garage, that the four police cars that the Police Department wanted to auction off were in good shape even if they couldn’t be used for high speed chases and that it made sense to use them, possibly for other departments rather than auction them off for $300-$400. (Note: at an earlier meeting, the Police Department's request to auction off the cars was postponed pending getting additinoal information about the cars.)

Supervisor Grace also informed the board that a DEC Mac packer truck with only 14,000 miles but with a blown engine would be given to the Highway Department which will convert the truck to its own use.The existing truck body is no longer usable.

Gasboy repair/replacement

Town Board, 5/8/2012

Supervisor Grace said the town is still looking into whether the new fuel master system can be purchased with energy grant funds.

Town Board, 3/13/2012

See discussion on use of energy stimulus funds and purchase of sewer department trucks

Town Board, 2/28/2012

Supervisor Grace said he would work with Councilman Paganelli on an alternate approach to keeping track of gas usage by town vehicles. The vendor who was supposed to replace the inoperable encoder advised the town that a new encoder would not work with the town’s existing software and that as an interim measure he will supply to town with new individual cards.

Town Board, 1/24/2012

Kim Angliss-Gage, Acting Recycling Coordinator, explained that a part for the town’s current Gasboy system, a 14 year old DOS based computer system which keeps track of the gasoline usage for different departments, was broken and needed to be repaired at a cost of about $3,500. The issue was whether to repair the old system or move to a new system. The 2-card authorization system keeps track of what driver and what vehicle used how much gasoline so that each department can be appropriately charged. Last year, the town spent in excess of $400,000 on gasoline.

Recognizing that something had to be done immediately so that proper usage could be recorded, the board authorized the repair, but also discussed two options for the future: purchasing a newer version of the Gasboy software or having its vehicles fill up for gas at a local station on a contract bid basis.

Ms. Angliss-Gage explained that the cost of a new Gasboy system varied, depending on what functions were included in the software page. She estimated that to get the functions we now have, would cost approximately $40,000, plus an additional unknown cost for the town’s IT consultant to install the system. As an alternative, Highway Superintendent DiBartolo suggested that the town follow Cortlandt’s example and contract out for gasoline purchases. The main advantage of this approach, he said, was that the town could eliminate the need for underground tanks which created ongoing regulatory problems that were costly. The main issue with the latter approach was the need to make sure that the station that won the bid had a generator in the event there was no electricity. Mr. DiBartolo also discussed the feasibility of installing microchips in each vehicle that not only would read gasoline usage, but could also identify when a vehicle needed servicing.

Supervisor Grace spoke about the importance of preventive maintenance for our fleet as a way to extend the life of our vehicles. One need that was identified was washing the under carriage of cars. (the Highway Department does wash down its trucks.) According to Mr. DiBartolo, there was a plan in place years ago to do this, at a cost of $5 per vehicle at a local car wash but the plan either was never put into practice or ceased operation.(The point was not clarified.)

Supervisor Grace said that the Fleet Committee needed to meet to discuss vehicle related issues.

Fleet maintenance software

Town Board, 5/8/2012
Supervisor Grace briefly mentioned that the Town was looking into getting fleet management software but there was no discussion about what possible grant would fund it or how much it would cost.