DIETRICH, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) – The City of Dietrich has a backhoe for the first time after the Idaho Department of Transportation donated the equipment to the city.
State Rep. Mike Pohanka helped secure the backhoe after city officials approached him after a council meeting to ask if he could help them get one.
“I was able to contact several different agencies. I contacted the Idaho Department of Transportation and about a week later, I got a response from them, saying, ‘Hey, we have a backhoe for the city of Dietrich,'” Pohanka said.
When certain equipment needs to be replaced, ITD will auction it off or donate it to a city in need. In this case, one of these backhoes was given to Dietrich for free.
“We’re thrilled, it’s like Christmas morning here. We can’t afford things like this. We’re a very small community, less than 500 residents,” said Mayor Aaron Nicholes.
The mayor said the city’s budget is about $200,000, which makes buying a new backhoe out of the question. A used unit would not have been significantly cheaper.
“My understanding is that typically a unit like this would be between $60, $80 and $90,000, which is about half of our budget for the entire year,” Nicholes said.
Without the donation, Nicholes said the city would have had to contract out the work, which is expensive.
“Depending on the project, it can cost $6 to $10,000 a day to have a backhoe and the people who know how to use it come out and do things for us,” Nicholes said.
Mayor Nicholes and Public Works Director Chris Kennison said the city will now be able to save money. Kennison said the backhoe will allow him to complete more projects around Dietrich.
“One of the big ones is that I’ve been carrying five-gallon buckets of asphalt and fixing potholes, and that’s going to help me do more potholes basically and not kill my back. One of the other major projects I’d like to get into is the irrigation ditches. We haven’t been able to maintain them properly and now with this we’ll be able to get all of them in, and even be really useful and even our canal.” Kennison said.
Nicholes and Kennison said the backhoe will also provide a source of revenue for the city because they will be able to do jobs they would normally have to outsource. Kennison said when the city starts getting additional revenue, it could mean hiring additional help for the public works department.
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