TIFTON — County commissioners approved the purchases of a motorgrader and excavator for the public works department during their April 8 meeting.

The two vehicles, a 150 motorgrader with ditching arm and an M318 wheeled excavator, will be purchased from Yancey CAT for $381,004 and $284,252, respectively, and will replace machines the county currently leases, public works director Jason Jordan explained.

Jordan noted during the previous meeting that county staff had determined that the residuals and interest rates on the machines would be too high for buyback to be considered a worthwhile endeavor, and had put out bids on replacements.

Yancey had provided the low bid for both machines, with Jordan recommending acceptance of both prices, with funds for the purchase coming from TSPLOST. 

He stated this process would allow the county to make use of the equipment for several years, during which he was confident they would get extensive work out of both machines, after which they could freely determine if they wanted to keep using the equipment or trade it in.