Perry Public Works Director Jack Butler
Perry Public Works Director Jack Butler

The streets in the City of Perry haven’t been cleaned as thoroughly as the public works department would like, but they promise in the fall it will be done frequently.

The problem, according to Deputy Public Works Director Josh Wuebker, is the cost of operating the City’s street sweeper. “(I’ll) be honest with you, it costs so much money to run that machine. That machine probably uses 40 gallons in a day of diesel (fuel). Everything’s expensive, and you know, it’s just finding the time and stuff. We’ll go out, but other than that we’ll probably wait until the leaves and stuff fall for the most part.”

The current street sweeper is around 12-years-old, and though they would like to replace it, Public Works Director Jack Butler says the price for new machinery is more than they’re willing to spend at the moment. “Last year during the budget process, we were going through our equipment list and checking things over, and we hadn’t priced out a new street sweeper for 12 or 13 years. So we got ahold of one of the manufacturers, and he was telling us how good it was going to be price-wise. So anyway, they threw us a price for it, and it was $350,000 for a street sweeper. So that about makes you sick. That’s a lot of money, and quite honestly that’s hard to grasp.”

Butler says some day in the not-so-distant future they will have to look into biting the bullet and purchasing a new street sweeper, but until then they will use their current machine sparingly. To hear more about the Perry Public Works department, listen to Monday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.