Mayors consider high cost trailer

There may soon be more room for that load of stuff you wanted to haul to the dump. The Regional Board of Mayors is considering the purchase of another transfer trailer.

The mayors have sought a used trailer to provide extra dumping room for several months but have been unable to find one. A used one would cost from $40,000 to $50,000.

The mayors Monday looked at a new one from Wilkens Industries, Inc., from Morris, Minn., at a cost of just over $100,000.

The sticker price shock was enough to delay making any decision Monday.

Transfer station operator Randy Gumm has on several occasions asked the mayors to get a spare trailer for the operation so he wouldn’t have to consider closing the transfer station when there’s no available trailer to take materials.

Coulee Dam Mayor Greg Wilder asked if there was a reserve fund for a trailer and was told no.

The trailers are 53-feet long and include a “walking floor” that empties the trailer when it is dumped at the Grant County landfill in Ephrata.

The trailer issue will be on the agenda when mayors start looking at next year’s budget this October.