Neighboring towns secure grant to shared equipment
Five town secure Inter-municipal Grant for equipment purchase

   The Towns of Leicester, Avon, Caledonia, Mt. Morris and York recently notified that they are the recipients of a Shared Municipal Services Incentive Grant to be used to purchase a piece of heavy highway equipment.

   The $278,100 grant will be used to purchase a road widener and roller to be shared by the five town highway departments.

   Leicester Town Supervisor Gary Moore said the grant and the sharing of equipment is a good idea for towns, saving taxpayers a lot of money. He said heavy highway equipment is a necessity even though it may not be utilized every year by a town highway department.

   "Some years you do a lot of road reconstruction, some years you might not do any at all. This is a great grant because then when you do need the equipment, you’ll have it," explained. "Our towns work well together," he added.

   Caledonia Highway Superintendent Mark Schroeder says his department normally has to rent these pieces of equipment from the county or some other company when they do road work. He says that it is expensive to rent and sometimes difficult to get the equipment when you need it. Schroeder also says the road widener and roller will make it easier for the town to keep the roads in good shape.

   The details of the inter-municipal agreement, i.e. the schedule of use, housing the equipment, insurance and maintenance will all be finalized in the near future so that the bid process can begin.