By Talaina Kor During the council meeting on July 22, Hidden Cove Golf Course Superintendent Steve Rutherford came before the Holbrook City Council to request approval to purchase a fringe mower and gator. “The golf course currently uses a fringe mower that we purchase in 2004,” stated Rutherford, “It’s getting to a point where it’s very hard to work with.” The new mower is a 2017 preowned model with less than 900 hours. “When it comes to mowers, it’s all about the hours.” Rutherford said to the council that this mower was a good find and significantly cheaper than a brand-new model. He also added he has been quite happy with previous equipment bought from this company, which is called Mohave Cooperative. Councilman Tim Dixon asked City Manager Ted Soltis if the city went to bid for the fringe mower. Soltis explained, stating “You can either go to bid yourself and see what different companies are doing, or you can go in this case Mohave, and Mohave already does the bidding for you. They will go out to bid, they will look and see what the different rates are, they will get a special rate, and that’s what we take advantage of.” Soltis added that this is sometimes easier for smaller communities to take this route. The council approved the purchase of the fringe mower at the cost of $16,125. The board also approved the purchase of a new gator, since the current one is not strong enough to pull the new top dresser, which Rutherford said is significantly heavier than the previous one that was borrowed from the school. “We need it to utilize our top dresser.” The gator cost $10,974 and is also to be purchased through Mohave Cooperative. The council had its second reading for the primary tax levy for the 2022 fiscal year. Soltis explained what the tax levy meant due to the complexity of the document. The levy presented is for a rate of $0.4866 cents per $100 of full cash assessed valuation of all property located within the corporate limits of the City of Holbrook, a tax rate sufficient to raise the amount of $104,954 as required for the budget. An example of the amount assessed would be property with a cash value of $100,000 that had an assessor’s full cash value of $10,000, which would result in a tax of $48.66 annually. Mayor Merrill Young gave his condolences to former lieutenant of the Holbrook Police Department Jody Harrelson, who died in a vehicle collision earlier in the week. “He’s going to be missed definitely. Jody was a good man.” Soltis shared that one of the city staff members is working on the concessions stand at Hunt Park by giving it new siding and paint. “The next project will be Lisitzky Park concession stand.” Soltis also added that the city is in the process of getting bids to build a new fence for the softball field off from Seventh Street, which is in need of repair.
