Niles department heads seek more than 1M for equipment

City council will have to approve all the expenditures.
WARREN -- Two city department heads have asked for more than 1 million to replace equipment and purchase services.
Council's utilities committee approved the requests Wednesday. The request now must be approved by lawmakers.
Randy Fabrizio, superintendent of water and waste water, told the committee he needs 220,000 to replace four pumps at the sewage treatment plants.
"It's to the point of diminishing returns to repair them," Fabrizio said.
The pumps along with their motors are 20 years old and were rebuilt in 2004 and 2006, respectively, he explained. It costs between 5,000 and 10,000 to rebuild them, Fabrizio pointed out.
Of the 220,000 requested, 22,000 will be needed for engineering and design.
James Newbrough, superintendent of the Light Department, said he needs 150,000 for a 55-foot line bucket truck. The current one is 11 years old and needs to be replaced, he said.
The committee also approved putting before council 400,000 to replace two transformers and other equipment at the Walnut substation.
An additional 75,000 is needed in each of the next three years for tree trimming, for a total of 225,000, Newbrough said. The service is mostly used in backyards where the city cannot take its trucks.
In addition, the committee approved 60,000 to buy a diesel-powered generator for the safety building.
The current generator is old, Newbrough said, and can only power the dispatch center during an outage and not the entire building that houses the police and fire departments and municipal court.
Fabrizio and Newbrough said money is available from their departments to fund the purchases.