Saipan Mayor’s Office to get heavy equipment soon

The Saipan Mayor’s Office can now finally retire its 30-year-old heavy equipment after it recently received more than $500,000 from local and federal sources to buy new ones.

The mayor’s office recently got $100,000 from the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation and $413,000 from the Office of Insular Affairs.

Of the $100,000, $40,000 was used to purchase a used 1999 Kenworth T300 bucket truck from Spectrum Electric.

According to Saipan Mayor Marian Deleon Guerrero Tudela’s special adviser, Henry Hofschneider, the bucket truck’s mileage reading is about 71,000 miles.

He said the bucket truck had already been looked at during the late mayor Donald Flores’ time when he was looking for bucket trucks to be purchased.

“During that time we had them test it and made it run. We also had it operated by one of our staff and it is still in good condition,” Hofschneider said.

Tudela assured that six of the mayor’s office staff members will undergo bucket safety training this week before the truck is used.

“We are going to have two training [sessions] before the staff can operate the bucket truck for safety reasons and they also need to be certified,” Tudela said.

The training will take place on Sept. 24 and Sept. 26 and will be taught by an instructor from Professional Training Technology Inc. based in Guam. Tudela said the training will be funded by the mayor’s office at a “reasonable price.”

Hofschneider said that they will start pruning roadside trees soon after and might start at the north side of Saipan, working their way south.

Meanwhile, the mayor’s office will also be receiving a new 2014 Ford 750 dump truck in December or January, according to Tudela.

The dump truck was purchased by the mayor’s office’s OIA funding of $413,000. According to Tudela the dump truck cost $130,000.

“We will use this dump truck to backfill materials, pick up trash, debris from the tree pruning, and others,” Tudela said.

Hofschneider told Saipan Tribune that they are working with a vendor in the U.S for two backhoes and other new equipment.

“We are looking forward to purchasing the two backhoes and we want to go all the way with this because we really need the backhoes,” Hofschneider said.

Tudela said her office is down to one backhoe and needs to acquire new equipment in order to continue maintaining secondary roads.

Tudela also cited the need to purchase a smaller grader using the OIA funding. The mayor’s office’s two large graders are down and beyond repair.

Hofschneider said that some of the remaining OIA funds will be used to buy a small dump truck or small grader and any leftover will be used for funding staff training.

Tudela said they are still waiting on the Division of Procurement and Supply for two riding mowers as well.