West Memphis gets grant for trash truck

City gets deal on new alternative-energy sanitation vehicle

By JOHN RECH

news@theeveningtimes.com

It’s a brand-new truck! West Mayor Marco Mc-Clendon announced winning a 70/30 grant to add an alternative energy vehicle to the city public works fleet.

‘We’ve been trying to get a grant for a new sanitation vehicle,” said Mayor McClendon. “I am proud to announce, through the hard work of City Engineer Amanda Hicks, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) approved a 70/30 matching grant.

A new garbage truck cost projected at $235,000 and the mayor said the city would have to match about $70,000 to complete funding for the new truck.

Mayor Marco McClendon laid completing the deal at the feet of the aldermen.

“That is something for you to decide,” said Mc-Clendon.

The award couldn’t have come at a better time. Recently some of the residential garbage collection was sustained by city claw trucks while the rear end load trucks were down for service. The city bought claw trucks last year, but now the oldest vehicles in the sanitation fleet are garbage trucks.

Ward two and three residents complained about the claw trucks absent the regular garbage trucks and sanitation workers have used human resource channels to complain about not having enough of the right tools to do their jobs well. The grant was awarded in February and the ADEQ graded the written proposal excellent. The city needed to demonstrate need and access to alternative fuel. A clean air settlement with Volkswagen provided a pool of money earmarked for the matching grant.

“We priced a truck for CNG, which is natural gas,” said Hicks. “Love’s truck stop has it and that’s what helped us qualify for the grant. We had to designate the type of alternative energy we’d use on the trucks, also.”

Having a local natural gas fuel center at Love’s in the West Memphis truck stop helped qualify the city for a matching grant to buy an alternative fueled sanitation truck.

photo by nghnew.com