Town council approved the purchase of a new aerial lift for use by the parks and facilities and operations departments last week.
The town spent $59,386.27 on the machine. It had budgeted $70,000 for the machine in the 2011 budget.
Kelly Giesbrecht, the town's parks and facilities foreman, told council that the new unit is a large improvement in several areas — including safety — over the current model the town uses. “The unit we have now is very unsafe. There's just endless opportunities for this piece of equipment,” he told councillors.
The current lift, Giesbrecht said, will be used by the curling club because staff there like the machine.
The new unit can reach a vertical height of15.6 metres (52 feet) and can reach out horizontally about 7.5 metres (25 feet), while the current lift only reaches a height of about nine metres (30 feet). The current lift doesn't have the capability of reaching out horizontally.
The new unit is also driveable, whereas the current lift must be pushed in place. Giesbrecht said this will allow parks staff to do some tree care instead of contracting that work out.
“Response time when it comes to, if we have something broken, we can get on it right away inside the arena,” he said.
The new unit is also much safer. Staff can get in the enclosed bucket from ground level and then raise the unit to the required height, whereas with the current unit staff must climb to the required height and then get inside the bucket.
“The old one was not very safe,” he said.
Giesbrecht calculated the town had spent between $5,000 and $10,000 on lifts that could perform tasks the current model couldn't. As such, Giesbrect said this would be a good investment. He estimated the town could see a return on investment in about six to 10 years. He estimated the new equipment could last as long as 20 years.
"The unit we have now is very unsafe. There's just endless opportunities for this piece of equipment." Kelly Giesbrecht, parks and facilities foreman, Town of Olds
