A new remote-controlled mower should make it easier for Iola city crews to mow along the Riverside Park levees, Iola City Council members agreed Monday.
Council members approved the purchase of a TK-52XP mower from Red Equipment LLC, Independence, Mo., for $53,000.
Not only was the bid the lowest of three, but the remote-controlled mower should make it easier — and safer — to mow around the park levees, Parks Superintendent Berkley Kerr said.
That’s because the mower is manned via remote control.
Up to now, the city used a riding mower with a slope deck.
There are several other benefits, Kerr noted. The apparatus utilizes rubber tracks, not tires, and is designed to handle any slope of up to 50 degrees. It also comes with a winch system to extricate the mower from pretty much any kind of rough environs.
“The flat tires alone are a big deal to me,” Kerr said, noting the riding mower was prone to flats.
“And it will mow wet areas,” he added.
The mower is a 2021 demo model, which is $2,000 less expensive than a 2022 model also bid by Red Equipment. The demo model has less than 7 hours of use, Kerr noted. The warranty for the demo is the same as it would have been for the new one.
The bid passed, 6-0, with members Nickolas Kinder and Joel Wicoff absent.
THE CITY will return about $78,000 in unused Community Development Block Grant funds in order to close out the grant.
The CDBG CV-3 grant was implemented by the Department of Commerce to assist local businesses in Iola negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nine businesses received funding. Eight received $7,500, and a ninth received $12,000.
“We weren’t able to find enough business to expend all of those funds,” explained Jonathon Goering of Thrive Allen County, which helped administer the grant.
THE CONSTRUCTION portion of the Missouri Pacific walking trail from near Iola High School to the new Iola Elementary School site is essentially complete.
All that remains are to place handicap ramps at various street intersections and a pedestrian bridge crossing a slough to connect the school to parts east.
Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock said bids for those portions should be opened in September.
