The Soldotna City Council on Wednesday authorized the spending of an additional nearly $22,000 from the Streets capital fund for purchase of a new Trackless MT 7 municipal tractor and snowblower attachment.
The city’s budget for fiscal year 2025, which began on July 1, included $210,000 for purchase of the tractor and snowblower head. According to a memo from Maintenance Department Manager Scott Sundberg, included with an ordinance unanimously adopted by the council on Sept. 25, the price of the purchase jumped suddenly to nearly $232,000 this summer.
Sundberg writes that he verified the price of the purchase earlier this year with vendor Yukon Equipment, based in Anchorage. The city used the State of Alaska’s procurement site to create the budget and expected to purchase the equipment at a discounted “state pricing.”
“Yukon was informed by (the manufacturer) this summer that the state pricing reached the limit and would no longer be available for us to piggyback,” the memo says.
Without access to the discount, Soldotna purchased the tractor alone for $207,000.
The ordinance adopted by the council appropriates a remaining $21,847 from the Streets and Maintenance Department’s capital project fund to the equipment replacement fund for the purchase of the snowblower attachment, which costs $23,880.
Soldotna Public Works Director Kyle Kornelis told the council on Wednesday that the trackless tractors are the smaller sidewalk clearing vehicles — “incredible machines” — that Soldotna has used in recent years.
With approval of the funding, Kornelis says that the tractor and snowblower attachment will both arrive in November, in time to hit the sidewalks this winter.
Asked by the council about issues with snow clearing that made headlines in Anchorage in 2023, Kornelis said Soldotna has the personnel and the equipment necessary to tackle snowfall in “a mostly timely manner.”
The ordinance was passed on a unanimous vote.
A full recording of the meeting and the full text of the ordinance can be found at soldotna.org.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
