To begin 2023, the Helper City Council hosted a regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday evening. During this meeting, the council tackled the purchase of a number of items to benefit the city and its residents.
First, Helper City Public Works Director Mike Mastin spoke with the council regarding the possible purchase of a salter in the amount of $2,500. Mastin provided the council with photos of the salter and stated that he had found out about it earlier in the week. The salter would fit perfectly with the equipment that the city already has.
He explained that while the city does have two salters already, one can only fit one bucket of salt and the other can fit nearly two. This means that those that are salting the streets are dealing with traveling back and forth many times to refill.
However, the salter in question can fit five to six buckets of salt and Mastin hopes that purchasing it would save on time. The salter would come from Pendleton Landscape, who purchased it in the hope that they would receive the bid to plow and salt the Walmart parking lot. They were not awarded the bid and are looking to resell.
Mastin stated that they already have everything on hand to hook up the salter and get it running. It is in town, available to pickup and is much cheaper than retail.
The other purchase in discussion was two water fountains for the Helper Civic Auditorium. This would amount to $2,696. Mastin explained that two are needed as one is currently off of the wall in the auditorium and the other, located near the library, is going out.
The reason why Mastin researched fountains that have refilling stations is that he took into account events at the auditorium, such as the Catholic Carnival. There are also many that visit the library that usually have water bottles with them.
Helper City Recorder Zack Tonc explained that the salter would come from the streets budget while the fountains would come from the buildings budget. He also stated that he was comfortable with both of the purchases, which were ultimately approved by the council.