Seller of used vehicle declines to pay
By Bert Lehman
The Clintonville Public Works Department was unable to reach remediation with the company that sold a bucket truck to the city that is now defective.
The city will have to pay the entire repair cost to get the truck back into service, Public Works Director Kray Brown told the Clintonville Streets Committee at its March 28 meeting.
In February, Brown told the committee he was communicating with the seller of the 2008 Ford F550 truck, TRL Rents, to work out some sort of remediation because the city was told the truck passed inspection at the time of the purchase.
The bucket truck, which was purchased in early 2018, recently failed inspection and was taken out of service. The failed inspection was due to hydraulic hose issues in the boom of the truck.
Brown told the committee the repairs are estimated to cost $6,900.
He said he has funds in the current budget to cover the cost of the repairs, but he cannot guarantee more needs in the department will not arise during the year.
“Right now, I have money, but I don’t know come November or December,” Brown said.
Committee member Tammy Strey-Hirt asked if the city has any recourse against TRL Rents.
Brown said it was a used truck that the city purchased. At the time of the purchase, the truck passed inspection.
“At the end of the day we don’t have any recourse, really,” Clintonville City Administrator Sharon Eveland said.
“It is definitely a safety issue, and that’s why it was red-flagged,” Brown said.
He added this safety issue should have been flagged during the truck’s initial inspection and fixed before the city obtained the truck.
Jim Supanich, committee chairman, recommended the city get the truck fixed using funds currently in the budget.
“If there is something that comes up later in the year, we can address it at that time,” Supanich said.
The committee agreed to have Brown get the necessary repairs made to the truck to get it back into service.