North Cook News

At its regular meeting on April 10, the Roselle Village Board discussed buying new heavy equipment, and selling the old stuff.

The board approved the purchase of eight new trucks for the village. Because of the extremely competitive vehicle market and the wait time for vehicles ordered through dealerships, the board authorized its city administrator to have temporary purchasing power without prior board approval to best facilitate good buying opportunities. 

The board approved the purchase three new trucks for the streets division, one for the water division, and two for the wastewater division. Those six will come from the Bob Riddings dealership. The other two will come from Friendly Ford of Roselle, who will supply an F-250 and F-550, which will be upfitted with plows, salt spreaders, and warning lights.

The village board was also presented with bids for the sale of surplus police department equipment, specifically old firearms. The village purchased new Glock Model 45 MOS sidearms for its officers in December of 2020 to replace its existing Glock 21SF models. The department has no use for the old models and requested bids from organizations to purchase them through the Federal Firearms Licensees. The top bid received was $11,600 for the 40 firearms from Keisler Police Supply Company, which the village voted to approve.

The board also discussed collaborating with Bloomingdale Township for its mosquito abatement services.

In other business, Fire Chief Mike Bozik explained to the board that the fire department has a new fire engine, which means its old 2003 E1 Engine is surplus. In the past the village sent those vehicles to auction, or worked with a broker to sell them. In this case, the board was told the Village of Itasca is interested in purchasing the vehicle as it is looking to build a new fire station on the other side of town across the railroad tracks in light of the recent railroad merger decision.

“When we went and purchased a new engine, we did have a broker come take a look at the vehicle,” Bozik said. “They offered us $5,000 for the vehicle at the time because it needed substantial frame rail work. Since that time, we had made those repairs to the frame rails at an expense of about $16,000. So in talking with our brokers and others in the field, they feel the fair market value of that particular vehicle will be $30,000-$50,000. If we were to use a broker, they would take about 10 to 15% off the sale price for their commission. At this point, it would be a benefit to us as Itasca would allow us to keep the engine as long as we need it, until the new engine is placed in service of probably 30 to 45 days. It would help our neighbors and that we would not incur obviously a commission."

The board voted in favor of negotiating a price between the two villages without a formal third party. Board members discussed the importance of being a good neighbor and the stress many emergency departments felt with the impact of the railroad merger and looming costs for many communities because of it. 

The two fire districts also recently held a joint training session for their firefighters, reviewing both classrooms knowledge and physical skills, and continuing connections that could be utilized in a joint response in the future.

The board will meet again at 7 p.m. on Monday at the Village Hall at 31 South Prospect St.