Park County Public Works is updating its fleet of snowplows with a new supplier.

CMI-TECO of Casper, a Mack truck dealer, was the low bidder for two dump trucks with plows and sanders. At their Nov. 19 meeting, commissioners approved the recommendation from County Engineer Brian Edwards to go with CMI even though it was not a company they had worked with — at least in Edwards’ time at the county.

The approved bid, with extended warranties added, was $523,634 ($504,704 before warranties), well below a group of other bids.

“There was quite a bit of price difference from the low bid,” Edwards said.

The next closest was one of the bids from Floyd’s Truck Center, also of Casper, at $581,988 for a Western Star truck with up-fitting done by Kois Brothers out of Billings. Bids with Peterbilt trucks, which the department has also used, were slightly higher still.

A key to the difference, Edwards said, was that CMI does its own up-fitting (adding equipment to the base truck), while most companies have other companies, like Kois Brothers, do the up-fitting.

After opening the six bids in the morning (a seventh was discarded for being too late) Edwards brought some staff with him to the regional Wyoming Department of Transportation facility as WYDOT had experience using some Mack trucks from CMI.

Edwards said from that trip and further discussions, his team was convinced the low bid wasn’t too good to be true.

“The guys want to try the Mack trucks and see how they do,” Edwards said. “There’s still a few questions, but I think it’s things we can work out.”

He said another consideration was timing, and, again thanks in part to the up-fitting being done in-house, CMI is offering a quicker delivery date than most of the other bids, some of which proposed delivery in 2026.

“The [CMI] rep is pretty committed to that Aug. 15, 2025 and that they could hit that date,” Edwards said.

The department had also bid out a trade-in of two older dump trucks but determined they could get more for them on auction.

Three quarter ton pickups

The commissioners also approved the low bid on two new three-quarter ton pickup trucks for public works.

Fremont Cody and Denny Menholt were the only bidders, with the commissioners going with the department’s recommendation of Denny Menholt and two new 2025 Chevy Silverados for $97,884 over Fremont’s two Ford Super Duty pickups for $106,370.

The pickups are expected to be delivered within 120 days of being ordered.