Lauderdale County supervisors are expected to move forward with repairs to the county’s asphalt spreader and consider buying a new fire truck when they next meet Monday.

In a work session Thursday, Road Manager Rush Mayatt said the county’s asphalt spreader currently needs a new generator, which generates the heat needed to work with asphalt mixtures. The repair follows a larger overhaul on the machine earlier this year to replace wear parts after the piece of equipment reached 5,000 hours of use.

“We’ve sank a lot of money in this thing,” he said.

At a meeting in May, supervisors discussed the increased maintenance costs for the asphalt spreader and potentially replacing the equipment in the upcoming budget year.

The cost to resolve the generator issues is quoted at $38,706.25, Mayatt said, and his recommendation is to move forward with the repairs. The machine needs to be operational for the county to successfully sell it, he said.

“Nobody is going to buy the machine as it is,” he said.

As the county works to address problems with its own equipment, Puckett Machinery’s Ben Jones, who spoke to the Board of Supervisors about a used machine available for purchase in its May 30 work session, is allowing county crews to try out the machine and see if it will meet their needs, Mayatt said. That will allow for at least some asphalt work while a more permanent solution is discussed.

Supervisors are also set to approve a $27,595 bid from Helms Polyfoam LLC in their meeting Monday for repairs on Lizelia and Lauderdale Toomsuba roads. Mayatt said the county has previously used expanding poly foam for bridge ends and to fill voids, but this will be the first time the expanding material has been used on county roads. The foam will be injected into the road bed to lift and stabilize sunken sections of the pavement.

“You’ve got two areas where the road is completely dipped,” he said. “It’s a safety issue.”

Although this will be the first time the foam has been used on Lauderdale County roads, Mayatt said it is far from the first time the foam has been used for this purpose. The foam was originally designed to lift and stabilize concrete and asphalt, he said, and the use on bridges and void filling came later.

Using the foam is significantly faster and less expensive than digging up the road, Mayatt said.

Fire Trucks

The Board of Supervisors is also set to consider the purchase of a new fire truck to provide fire protection for Lauderdale County residents. Fire Coordinator Alan Dover said this truck will go to Alamucha Volunteer Fire Department to replace a 2004 engine currently stationed there.

Dover said he had received two quotes for the truck with one at $652,102 and the other at $497,923. Large discrepancies in bids, such as those for the fire truck at more than $150,000 difference, are seen as red flags by government officials as they can point to missed specifications, problems with the bid documents or other issues. After speaking with each company, however, Dover said one vendor is including anticipated changes to federal regulations for fire trucks, which are expected in the next few years, while the other vendor is not.

Lauderdale County orders its fire trucks custom built, and the makers have 592 days from the time they receive the vehicle’s chassis to complete the work, Dover said. Chassis from two previously ordered trucks made it to the builders in March, he said, so they will be arriving next year.

County Administrator Chris Lafferty said it takes roughly 2.5 years to go from ordering the custom trucks to receiving them. The county could look at purchasing fire trucks without the customization, which would cut the wait time down by more than half at a comparable cost, he said. A truck that costs $489,000 is available for delivery in February 2025, he said, and one that the county could get in June 2025 is just $466,000.

Stock fire trucks are an option, Dover said, but wait time isn’t the only thing taken into consideration. Like the rest of the nation, Lauderdale County’s volunteer firefighter crews are getting older and safety must be taken into account, he said. At the same time, fire trucks are getting larger, both in height and in length.

The custom fire trucks being built for the county have storage for hoses and other equipment on the sides of the vehicle, which is accessible from the ground, he said, while stock trucks typically have the storage on the top. The goal, he said, is to limit the need for firefighters to get on top of the trucks, reducing the likelihood of a fall and any resulting injuries.