The Coos Bay building codes administrator will be zipping around the city in a brand new Ford Escape hybrid, the first new vehicle for the Community Services Department in more than 10 years.

Community Services budgeted $34,300 for the purchase of a new vehicle this year to replace the 1993 Chevrolet Corsica currently used by administrator Barry Hardman.

“It's important that the building codes inspector have a reliable vehicle,” said Community Services Director Jim Hossley. “He's out on the job so much and does so much driving around. And we only have one, so if he's trapped or broken down somewhere, we're in a bad position.”

The city invited six car suppliers to bid for the vehicle, and received three responses, including the state contract for $27,561 and Tower Motor Company, the Ford dealership in Coos Bay, for $28,957. City and county governments are required to accept the lowest qualified bid for all work, construction and equipment, but if there are good reasons for not doing so, the department or agency may approve one of the higher bids.

At the Coos Bay City Council meeting Tuesday night, Hossley requested the council approve the second-lowest bid for the purchase of a new hybrid sport utility vehicle, rather than the lowest. Hossley asked the council to approve buying the Escape hybrid from Tower Ford for several reasons, including supporting a local business and that the dealership could also provide the SUV right away.

“I think we should buy locally whenever we can,” Councilor John Muenchrath said. “I think we should keep the money in the area, to support the businesses and people of Coos Bay and North Bend.”

The rest of the council agreed and approved the higher bid. Not wasting any time, Hossley went to Tower Ford and picked up the Escape hybrid Friday morning.

“It certainly makese me happy that we've been able to purchase two police cars and now this vehicle, from local dealers,” said Councilor Jon Eck.

Sipping and zipping

Choosing a hybrid meant the city will save money on fuel for the codes administrator to make his inspections at buildings throughout Coos Bay. The hybrid gets a gas mileage average of about 36 mpg in the city and 31 mpg on the highway, using an electric and gas engine system that works together to lower the polluting emissions and bring up the miles per gallon.

“The reason we were looking for it was it was one thing that local government can do to sort of set an example, and try to save energy and protect the environment,” Hossley said. “We want to experiment with this, see if it's a good choice for us and if it will work for the rest of our fleet.”

According to City Manager Scott McClure, the Community Services Department has been exchanging older used vehicles for newer used vehicles, for the last 20 years, and bought only one new piece of equipment around 10 years ago.

Although the department is preparing a regular replacement schedule for the aging administrative and public works vehicles and equipment, the fleet as a whole is getting pretty old and worn down, McClure said.

“It's just a poor fleet. It's in extremely poor condition. I don't consider it acceptable and we need to get on at least a slow sequence,” McClure said.

“Equipment is the first casualty when you're budget is in a bad place. You're saving the money now, but you're really deferring the problem.”

The city must have more reliable equipment that operates well, McClure added, or morale and personnel issues become unforeseen conflicts. One of the city's goals is to get up to the standards of other cities regarding vehicle and equipment maintenance and replacement.

“On occasion, we've replaced equipment and vehicles with used replacements, or with hand-me-downs from other departments,”said McClure. “The workers get excited seeing the used equipment because it's better than what they've been using. It's sad when you go from pretty bad to marginally better and it's an improvement.”

Both McClure and Hossley said that the poor fleet quality causes problems for employees traveling out of the city. Many are concerned they will break down and be stranded. As a result, the city pays the mileage of employees driving their own vehicles, a costly expense that will be partially alleviated by the new Escape hybrid, Hossley said.

The city is preparing the 2006-07 budget, and although the funding and costs are not finalized, McClure has a laundry list of vehicles and equipment that are badly in need of replacement. Although the Coos Bay Police Department and Fire Department are in pretty good shape, thanks to grants and a regular replacement schedule, Community Services and other department vehicles are in serious need of replacements, he said.

The city is considering replacing two administrative vehicles and a backhoe in Community Services, a tractor-mower for the Parks Department, a pickup truck and a dump-truck for Street Department, a sludge truck and street sweeper. The city is estimating the budget cost for replacing the equipment and vehicles to be around $650,000, and is looking for another $400,000 a year to keep the replacement schedules on track.

Many of the vehicles replaced, including Hardman's Corsica, will be rolled back into service for the city to replace other, less reliable cars.

“It seems most folks are very pleased with their hybrids, so we'll see how this one works out,” he said.

In other business:

n the council approved a request from the Fire Department to replace the wooden bay doors at the downtown station for $10,455.