Ballfields and courts across the city will soon have new lighting following commissioners decision to enter a contract with Montoya Electric Service, Inc. for repairs to lighting systems at various park locations.
Across the city, the Parks and Recreation Department has 61 various ball fields and courts that are lighted for evening use. The lighting systems “consist of 231 individual poles holding 1,414 light fixtures. Nearly 30 percent of these systems were installed in the 1990s or earlier,” according to the report.
Florida’s harsh climate and the age of the units have led to many poles needing new bulbs, ballasts, wiring and other repairs. It’s led to fields having a “lower than preferred” lighting level due to several issues that have begun to occur. The plan is to have all of the bulbs replaced while also repairing the dark fixtures and wiring.
The total cost of repair on each pole will be unknown until the work begins. Repairing ball field lighting is consider to be a specialty, so the city piggybacked off of a Polk County contract with Montoya Electric Service, Inc. and proposed a contract “for repairs is a not-to-exceed $150,000.00, providing flexibility to do the repairs found at each pole.”
The city also approved the purchase of a few new gadgets and tools Monday evening.
One of the items approved is the purchase of a Toro Multi Pro 5800 field and ground sprayer. This unit was already budgeted for as the city knew it was time to replace a 2001 Cushman Turf Master Sprayer that is “out of life, costly to maintain and unreliable,” according to the report. The tool is used for various spraying jobs within the park’s infrastructure.
The city will buy the Toro Multi Pro 5800 field and ground sprayer for $58,792.97 from Wesco Turf, Inc. The funds are available in the Fleet Replacement Fund.
Soon all of Plant City will have automated trash pick-up rather than the current manual operation. It’s a multi-phased plan and the city must plan well in advance to get the automated side-load refuse trucks ordered. Plant City is currently still at the start of Phase I, but commissioners approved the purchase of three more automated trucks Monday evening in order to get the trucks here on time. That will be a part of Phase II.
The vehicles will replace three 2014 Freightliner rear loaders and can be purchased through the Florida Sheriff’s Association (FSA) Bid for $321,231.50 per truck from Rush Truck Centers of Florida, Inc., which totals $963,694.50. The funds are available in the Fleet Replacement Fund.
City Manager Bill McDaniel announced Monday the city has $3,843,940 available for the FY 2021 Street Resurfacing Program. From those funds, $2,176,700 will be used to provide ADA compliant curb ramps where pedestrian walkways intersect the streets, which will bring the curb ramps into compliance for the city streets included in the 2016 through 2020 Street Resurfacing Program.
The remaining $1,667,240 will be used for resurfacing roads. The city has identified 15 local streets that are top priority for the next round of paving.
