WEST WILDWOOD – West Wildwood will not be without a vehicle to plow the borough’s streets this winter after it arranged to purchase two used trucks from Wildwood Crest.
Wildwood Crest is selling a 2011 Ford F-350 pickup truck and a 2008 Ford F-450 dump truck to West Wildwood for $1,500 each. Wildwood Crest Clerk and Administrator Connie Mahon said the vehicles would have been put out to auction on govdeals.com.
But her counterpart in West Wildwood, Donna Frederick contacted the Crest and said they were looking for a vehicle to replace a failed F-450.
Mahon said New Jersey statute allows a municipality to sell surplus items to another municipality without putting the item up for auction. Many municipalities use the GovDeals online auction site to dispose of surplus items, rather than hold onsite auctions.
“It allows us to be a good neighbor and provide something another town needs,” Mahon said.
Frederick said one of the vehicles is basically ready to go and should be delivered shortly.
“The second, (Public Works staff) are waiting on the replacement vehicle, which should arrive maybe in December,” she said.
The matter of the truck came up at the West Wildwood Board of Commissioners work session, Aug. 16, where it was reported that the borough’s existing F-450 needed to be scrapped. At the time, Mayor Matthew Ksiazek, attending the meeting via phone conference, said the vehicle’s frame “is rotten” and the fuel tank is rusted and compromised. Borough Solicitor Matthew Lyons said it was doubtful the borough could get a new vehicle by spring or even summer 2023. This had borough officials looking into other options.
“I’ve been talking to other municipalities about purchasing a used vehicle,” Frederick said in August.
Frederick said she just spoke to the dealership, Winner Ford in Cherry Hill, and the dealership could not give her a delivery date for a new truck. In August, a computer chip shortage was blamed for the low availability of new vehicles.
Frederick reached out to Wildwood Crest, which happened to be replacing two of its trucks. Frederick said the trucks should come with their original plows. The borough wanted to make sure it had a vehicle in place for the winter. Frederick said that if the borough gets a year’s use out of the vehicles, they will have served the borough well.
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