County purchases commercial-grade lawn mower

An informational discussion took place as the Jasper County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of a new commercial-grade lawn mower.

Five bids were received from businesses across the county with the board selecting a John Deere Z915E 54” mower for $8,780 from Van-Wall Equipment, Inc. in Colfax.

“The hard part about bidding different brands of mowers is you kind of jump all over the board with either the size, motor size and/or the bagger system,” buildings and grounds Director Adam Sparks. The one thing we noticed that we liked best, the bagger system we had on our old mower was just a two bagger system. The only bagger system of all five of these brands that really upped it size was John Deere. They offer a three bag, four bushel system compared to everybody else.”

The decision came down between the John Deere and the low bid of a Hustler 54” mower for $7,482 from Smith’s Quality Rental in Newton. The board ultimately went with the John Deere because of its added features and size.

“The difference with that was (the Hustler) has the smallest motor and the smallest bagger system,” Sparks said. “It was a little hard for me to decide because if we were going to go off of price, Smith’s Rental was the lowest but if were going to go off of over all use and best options with the mower, than to me, the John Deere with the three bagger and holds twice the gas.”

Supervisor Doug Cupples said the difference in price between the two mowers was about $1,300 up front. He asked Sparks how long a mower typically lasts and what work it will do.

“We have found that buyer a mower and keeping it until the end of its time is really the way to go. When we buy this mower, ideally we would have seven to 10 years until it either gets to the point were we can trade it in and get a little bit of money back for it or drive it until it is almost unusable,” Sparks said. “When the grass would get a little taller, you could make two swipes on that mower and the two bags would be full. If we could step up, we are thinking is the $1,300 worth an extra seven bushels. To us it is, but if it’s not to anybody else that is fine, the one from Smith’s would do a good job as well, we would just be dumping the grass is twice as much.”

The mower is typically used about 30 times per year at each location. He said the John Deere is also the fastest mower at 10 mph versus six to eight from the other choices and has parts available over night and a loaner mower on hand during the down time.

“The time that this would save would account for $6 dollars every time we mow each year. To me that seems logical to save us money on labor in the long run, not just the bottom dollar now,” Cupples said.

In other business:

• Makennah Walters was hired as a part-time female jailer at the Jasper County Jail with a pay rate of $18.10 and a start date of Thursday.

• Shawn Dobbs was hired as the site manager in Monroe for Elderly Nutrition at a pay rate of $13.19 per hour starting Tuesday.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com