WILLMAR -- The Willmar Municipal Utilities Commission voted Monday to advertise for bids to buy a 50-foot aerial lift and related equipment for a two-person bucket truck.
While the lift and related equipment will be bought from a private company, the truck and chassis will be bought for the first time through the state, said Mike Nitchals, utilities general manager. This may be the first time that the state has had a suitable truck to meet the utilities' needs, said Nitchals.
The utilities has budgeted $140,000 for the truck and lift, of which the truck is estimated at slightly more than $50,000. The bid will include a trade-in allowance for a 1995 International 4700 truck and a 50-foot bucket lift.
Bucket trucks are replaced every 10 years, said Nitchals.
"The miles are not the critical thing. The hauls are fairly short,'' said Nitchals in an interview. "But with the hours the equipment operates, it could be running all day long, and our replacement schedule usually calls for 10 years of useful life and then replaced. It takes a lot of maintenance in between there.''
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Bucket trucks are used for overhead line work and underground repairs and carry all necessary tools and equipment. "Since we have both kinds of distribution systems (underground and overhead lines), we have pieces and parts to do everything,'' he said.
Because line department employees cannot shut off the power when they are working on the lines, bucket trucks must be constructed to prevent the electricity from reaching the ground, which would injure the workers, Nitchals explained.
The equipment must be tested and certified annually.
"We're very careful with keeping to that replacement schedule,'' said Nitchals. "We keep them in good shape.''
The line department has three bucket trucks, along with two digger-derrick trucks, which are used for drilling holes in the ground for setting poles and other kinds of heavy lifting, and pull trailers, small utility trucks and pickup trucks.
