City Council Study Session - December 22, 2025: Vehicle Purchases, Budget Revision, and Subdivision Discussion
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City Council Study Session - December 22, 2025
The Sheridan City Council held a study session on December 22, 2025, at 5:30 PM to discuss seven agenda items covering major capital purchases, a mid-year budget revision, and a county subdivision recommendation. No formal votes were taken; discussions will inform future consent and regular agenda items.
Consent Calendar
- No consent calendar items were noted.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were recorded.
Discussion Items
- Purchase of Two Side Loader Trucks: Fleet coordinator Heather Kamplinski presented quotes for a 2026 MAC-Heil single-arm side loader ($450,864) and a 2026 MAC-Lebre dual-arm side loader ($480,560.20) from CMI TechO. The purchases replace a 2013 and a 2016 unit, with budget shortfalls of $33,295 and $78,000 to be covered by solid waste fund cash balance. Utilities director Dan Roberts explained that due to 20-30% inflation on side loaders, the city plans to extend truck replacement cycles from 12,000 to 17,000 hours (approximately 7 to 10 years) to maintain fund balance health. Council members questioned the sole-source cooperative purchasing process and the rising costs.
- Purchase of Transit Camera Van: A new Ford Transit all-wheel-drive camera van from Qs Inc. for $269,171.16 will replace a 1999 Ford E-450 with 8,752 miles but high idle hours. The purchase is funded from wastewater collection capital outlay, with a $19,171 shortfall covered by contingency. Delivery in 90-120 days.
- Purchase of Pierce Enforcer Rescue Engine: A new fire engine from Front Range Fire Apparatus for $1,177,826 will replace a 2009 Spartan engine. The total includes a $500,000 Mineral Royalty Grant and $250,000 from the general fund over two years; an additional $178,000 will come from a budget revision. Delivery is expected in Q3 2025, with a savings of over $130,000 compared to the original quote. Fire Chief Harnish noted that both existing engines (2009 and 2008) are currently out of service, leaving only one operational engine.
- FY26 Budget Revision No. 1: City Treasurer Darla Hawkins and Administrator Stuart McRae presented the first budget revision. Staff identified $3.2 million in requests, including $723,600 from the original "one-to-end" list and $2.46 million in new items (e.g., street sweeper, snow day pickup costs, emergency water line repairs). The general fund has $6 million in cash reserves; the revision proposes using $800,000, leaving a 25% reserve for routine expenditures. The revision also includes a budget tool software purchase (ClearGov) and adjustments to enterprise funds (water, sewer, solid waste, golf). A public hearing is scheduled for January 5, 2026.
- Bucking Iron Business Park Subdivision (PL25-33): City Planner Kelly Schroeder presented a proposed 20-acre, 6-lot industrial subdivision off East Ridge Road. Staff recommended that the city send comments to the county recommending: (1) water infrastructure be extended, (2) a decentralized sewer system be accepted, and (3) Bucking Iron Circle be paved to an appropriate rural standard. Council members debated the precedent, cost to the developer (approximately 2,700 feet of water line), and fire protection needs (nearest hydrant 1 mile away). Some council members opposed requiring water and paving due to business friendliness and the city's missed requirement in a neighboring subdivision (WLM). The discussion concluded with a plan to vote on the recommendation at the next meeting on January 5, 2026.
Key Outcomes
- No final decisions were made; all items are pending future council action.
- The budget revision will be formally considered at the January 5, 2026, meeting following statutory publication.
- The subdivision recommendation will be voted on January 5; some council members indicated opposition to water and paving requirements.
- Staff will review the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the county regarding urban service area standards.
- A consent agenda item for up to $5,000 in in-kind support for the Yo Winter Rodeo will be included on the January 5 agenda.
- Councilmember Lumen requested a future workshop on using Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to incentivize utility extensions.
Meeting Transcript
We stand for the page, please. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the December 22nd, 2025 study session with the city council. It's 530, so we'll get started. We have seven items on our agenda for tonight. The first two are kind of about the same thing, so we're just gonna present one and two together. The first one is discussion of the purchase of one 2026 MACHIL single arm side loader from CMI TechO for the amount of 450,864. And the next one is the discussion of the purchase of one 2026 MAX LeBray dual arm side loader from CMI TechO in the amount of 480,560.20 cents. And here to present that is our fleet and administrative coordinator, Heather Kamplinski. Welcome, Heather. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, like the mayor said, this is for the purchase of two side loaders. So we have here our uh fleet replacement plan image here that takes into account the uh mileage age, utilization, cost of um when it comes to replacing our vehicles, and in the current budget, we had one single arm side loader for the waste collection division and one dual arms side loader for the recycling division approved in this budget to replace. Um the request for quotes utilizing the source well cooperative purchasing process were obtained and include a 20% discount on the single arm, 16% on the chassis and 4% on the body, and 18% on the dual arm 16 and 2. And then just to give you a little comparison, the last side loader the city purchased in June of 2022 was 289,549 dollars, and it was also a MACHILE combination. A recent quote for a MAC labree, um the City of Laramie purchased last October of 24, um, and that came in at 488,705 dollars. Um they paid 418,705 because they had a 70,000 trade in. Um itself compared to some of the other OEMs, the original equipment manufacturers, um, has been traditionally coming in up to 40,000 less than the other chassis. Um you can see here on the right um my little image showing the reason all the reasons for the increases you're seeing over the last few years. So you've got the body price increase, you've got the chassis that's been at about 36,000. Material prices have increased, we've got tariff charges 3,500. Um, and then in both the single and dual arm quotes, there is a 12,951 that includes um extended warrantees on the engine and transmission horsepower upgrade and automatic snow chains. We will be replacing a 2013 auto car and heel that has a little over 16,000 hours and 81,000 miles at the time that I wrote the staff report, um, and a 2016 MAC Libri, which you can see has over 15,000 hours and almost 80,000 miles. Both of those will be surplused. Before listening the source well quote quotes, I met with the shop supervisor and the solid waste recycling supervisors several times to go over the uh specifications. So we reviewed them, edited them, solidified them, and then sent them out to get the quote during those meetings. It was determined that the MAC Heil combination and the MAC labris were the best choices. Um that was all based on current operation and user feedback, reliability, the proximity to dealerships for parts and support, and continued standardization of our fleet. As it uh comes down to the funding, the solid waste sanitation capital outlay budget this year started off with 437,624 approved dollars in the budget. We still currently have 409,654. But that still leaves 33,2795 short for this purchase. And for the recycling, you can see they're started off with a little over 507,000. We have a little over 402 left, but that still leaves us again with a shortfall, 78,000. With both these purchases, with the approval of them, that authorizes the purchase to be able to use the funds from the solid waste funds cash balance. That will come forth in an amendment in the budget revision number one later this evening with the treasurer. So staff recommends that we move forward with the purchase of a 2026 MACHILE single arm side loader from CMITCO for 450,864, and a 2026 Mac Fabri dual arm side loader from CMIT Co for 480, 560.20 cents, both with an order to delivery timeline of about 10 months. And at this time, I'd like to invite the utilities director Dan Roberts up to give you some information regarding the rising costs we're seeing in the industry and how that affects the solid waste replacement schedules and rates moving forward. Evening Mayor and Council. She's done an outstanding job establishing the price of our solid waste trucks, especially the side loads presently, but it is a shocking number. And when you compare what we paid in 2022, and I believe we projected a $365,000 side load truck forward in our fleet plan. We're seeing inflationary rates that are hard to even put a finger on. We're talking 20 to 20 to 30 percent, and in some cases, that's really staggering. It's not sustainable by any stretch of the imagination. So what I want to talk a little bit about here in these two vehicles particular, we have several other side load trucks in our fleet. Um we haven't seen quite the same amount of increase on the rear load and the front loads, but the side loads we we certainly did in this coming year. So in order to be able to make a recommendation to you that this is something we can absorb and pay for financially, had to look at well, what is what does that mean? Can we sustain it in the future? Can we pay for these these types of trucks at these prices in the future? Umtil we find a better way to deliver them that I'm we're presenting to you that's that's what we're signing up for at this at this point in time. We'll still look at other ways to deliver side load trucks, but right now these are the prices that we're that we're looking at. Um we've done refurbishment in the past, but only partial, so we would have to do something more of a full-on complete refurbishment to really make it make it work.
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