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City Purchases New, ‘Damn Important’ Asphalt Paver

From left back row, Jeff Lehman, city public works director; Denny Scalise, city equipment operator; Dave Hyser, city equipment operator; Greg Rabb, Jamestown City Council president; Dave D’Angelo city equipment operator; Chuck Parker, city mechanic; and Pat Monaghan, city fleet manager; from left front row, Mark Schlemmer, city senior civil engineer; George Spitale, At-Large councilman; Russ Bonfigloio, city crew chief; and Sam Teresi, Jamestown mayor; in front of the new Cat AP1000F asphalt paver.

Last month, bad luck hit at the wrong time for the city Public Works Department.

During the height of paving season, the city’s 23 year-old asphalt paver bit the dust and no longer would run. With no paver and a short timeframe to get asphalt laid during the heat of the summer, city officials went to work to assess all their options.

Sam Teresi, Jamestown mayor, said Public Works Department administrators led by Jeff Lehman, approached him about the situation and their best option. With City Council’s approval, they purchased a new CAT AP1000F asphalt paver.

“They came up with a lease-to-own option to get it here as quickly as possible,” Teresi said.

The mayor said another option was to rent an asphalt paver from Lake Shore Paving, but they would have needed to work around the business’ already busy schedule this summer, which would have delayed needed repaving work in the city.

“The last paver stopped working a couple weeks ago during the most ambitious paving season in a long time for the city,” Teresi said. “Our only option was to acquire a new one. Some people might ask, ‘Why spend so much money for something that only works 20-25 days a year.’ It’s because it is a damn important piece of equipment. We cannot deal with the infrastructure in the city without this key piece of equipment.”

Teresi said the asphalt paver costs $420,000 and should last the city between 10-20 years. He said city officials plan to pay for the expensive piece of heavy equipment through a bond anticipation note. He added the asphalt paver is the first piece of new equipment city officials want to purchase to update their fleet with safer, more reliable and better fuel efficiency vehicles and equipment.

Lehman said the asphalt paver is the most expensive piece of equipment for the city, which they received Thursday. Friday morning city workers received their first training on the new asphalt paver. Pat Monaghan, city fleet manager, said it has a five-year warrant.

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