Lebanon roads boss: Buying backhoe will save $$$

An image of a backhoe.

LEBANON - Lebanon Road Commissioner Larry Torno is asking voters once again to approve his department’s purchase of a backhoe loader.

He asked once before in a June ballot question, but that request for funding was above and beyond his roads budget. It was rejected.

The ballot question this year – Question 13 – asks voters to allow him to purchase the backhoe using funds within his annual roads budget, which this year totals about $963,000.

The loader would cost taxpayers about $102,000, with a three-year lease in which annual payments including interest would be about $34,000.

The backhoe would be used for a variety of tasks, including loading sand and salt for snowplows and pushing back snowbanks in the winter; and digging out trenches and cleaning ditches in the warmer months.

Roads boss Larry Torno

Torno said right now he rents a backhoe for $68 an hour and uses it up to 1,500 hours a year for a total of a little more than $100,000.

He estimates that the cost of the lease payment, labor, fuel and insurance would add up to about $70,000, allowing a cost savings of more than $30,000 even before the vehicle is paid for. He added that the vehicle comes with a five-year warranty, so there should be no maintenance costs during the time the town is making the payments.

 “The town can save a lot of money doing this,” he said on Tuesday.

The backhoe is well-equipped to multi-task and comes with a snowplow, a fork lift, a wrist bucket and other tools, he said.

Torno said that the backhoe can travel around town at speeds up to 30 mph, so it’s unlikely the town would need a trailer to haul it.

He said after the three-year lease is up it’ll save the town even more.