CHENANGO COUNTY – The chip shortage that made consumer car buying a hassle is now making things difficult for the Chenango County Department of Public Works too.

“Whenever we transport our workers to and from a job project, we typically use two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive pickup trucks,” said DPW Superintendent Shawn Fry, explaining that it’s been more than two years since his department could replace any pickups in his fleet. “We’ve gotten to the point now where the older trucks we bought 10 or 12 years ago are worn out.”

Fry appeared before the Chenango County Public Works Committee last week to make a case for going outside the county’s procurement policy for the replacement of several pickup trucks – a move that could cost the county tens of thousands of dollars more.

Three of his department’s older model trucks are becoming too costly to maintain, according to Fry, but they’re needed to transport crew and materials from job sites.

When it comes to vehicle purchasing, the county has two options under its procurement policy: either purchase through a sealed bid, or utilize Sourcewell, a Minnesota-based cooperative purchasing agency approved to offer purchasing contracts to state and local governments.

However both strategies have been unsuccessful, explained Fry. The county DPW sought written bids to purchase a new pickup three times in 2021, each time receiving zero responses. Another attempt was made to 25 dealerships in April, but the one available truck sold quickly to another party.

Fry turned to Sourcewell hoping for a better outcome, but a new truck won’t be available until March at the earliest.

“The problem is no one wants to sell to the municipalities anymore,” Fry told committee members. “Through Sourcewell or OGS [Office of General Service] contracts, you wait an extremely long time. I need these pickup trucks now.”

Though not part of its procurement policy, the county does have legal leeway to purchase vehicles from a private dealer without going to bid, so long as there’s just cause, explained County Attorney Zachary Wentworth.

“There’s two circumstances where we can work outside of trying to find a lowest bidder price, one being that it’s in the best interest of the county,” said Wentworth. “The other is for emergency situations. In this instance, if we don’t have the trucks to get them out there, I think we would be able to write it up in a fashion that we need to try to get these vehicles from a dealer.”

“Those purchase prices may be higher than we could find in a Sourcewell contract, but delivery and efficiency and timely response of getting those vehicles may be important enough to move that along,” said Wentworth. “I think we would be able to make that point.”

The hangup is that each truck purchased could cost roughly $12,000 more than what would be paid through a bid or cooperative purchase. And with the DPW looking to replace three trucks, that adds up fast.

The DPW has explored the use of vans instead. It also sought used trucks sold by other municipalities. But with trucks in high demand, reliable used pickups are hard to come by, Fry said.

The Chenango County Public Works Committee approved Fry’s request to look for new trucks outside of the county’s procurement policy, but any purchase may have to go to the county’s board of supervisors for final approval.