We pride ourselves on keeping the community clean, especially in the summer ...”

Zane Logan, City administrator

With the City of Powell’s current street sweeper sidelined for an extended period of time, if not permanently, after a recent accident, the Powell City Council approved a lease with Intermountain Sweeper Company for a new street sweeper.

With several events on the docket — including the Park County Fair later this month — having a working street sweeper was an imperative, Powell City Administrator Zane Logan said.

“We pride ourselves on keeping the community clean, especially in the summer where we have the fair parade and we have a lot of community activities, as well as the slurry seal was recently completed and we have upcoming chip seal — so it’s imperative we have a street sweeper,” Logan said. “We only have one and it’s looking like it may not even be repairable — and even if it [is], it’s several months out [of commission] getting it repaired. We cannot afford to be a whole summer without a street sweeper.”

The lease approved at Monday’s council meeting will run for at least three months at a rate of $15,000 per month, with an option to purchase the sweeper for a cost of $279,465. Should the city purchase the street sweeper from Intermountain, 80 percent of the lease fees will go toward the purchase price.

“It’s pretty fortunate we were able to already establish the price of the unit we wanted,” Logan said. “The manufacturer and the vendor was kind enough to bring it up here without even a lease agreement in place so we can get going.”

Purchasing the sweeper from Intermountain is the plan as of right now.

“It’s our intent, once we can work a deal and work through the insurance claim, that we would actually purchase this as soon as possible,” Logan said. “We’ve already established the price that would be by state statute for the bid process. That’s already been established.”

The council also approved a request by the Powell Recreation District to allow the use of BB guns and archery equipment during a Summer Academy camp next week at Homesteader Park.

Colby Stenerson, director of the recreation district, said the camp will be for children ages 8-11 and will have a certified instructor.

“Safety is our No. 1 priority with that,” Stenerson told the council.

The BB gun shooting will takes place just east of the National Guard armory at the park and is slated for Tuesday, while archery take place at Homesteader Park’s northwest corner on a date yet to be determined.

In other items of business, the council gave second-reading approval to an update to city code relating  to alcoholic beverage licenses. This update would define the term “operational” for businesses with alcoholic beverage licenses as the business being open either one eight-hour day per week or three four-hour days.