Thursday, January 19, 2012

New Truck



You might have noticed that our Public Works Department has a new truck.  The truck was purchased used as a lease turn-back.  It became available at the New Year.  Beiseker's Council decided it was a good opportunity to upgrade our vehicle fleet, but it will have to be accounted for in the Public Works 2012 budget. 

The Public Works Department will now have to evaluate all of its licenced vehicles and decide which one must be taken off our inventory.

2 comments:

  1. do you allow it for personal use by the village employees?

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    Replies
    1. This is always an issue in communities where public vehicles can be seen around town. The short answer is "no", village vehicles are not to be used by village employees for personal use unless special permission is given by council. That said, in a situation like we have here in Beiseker, the line is quite blurred. Our public works employees often take home the village vehicles, especially if they are "on call". Our Public Works Foreman is expected to have access to his truck 24/7. If they had to answer a call to a broken water main in the middle of the night, it would not make sense for them to start their personal vehicle, drive down to the public works shop and start the public works vehicle to attend the call.

      But what if a Public Works employee, driving a village truck stopped at the post office on his way home to pick up his own personal mail? I would have a great deal of trouble admonishing an employee for something like that!

      On the other hand, If I saw a Village of Beiseker vehicle loaded with personal belongings and heading south to Calgary, I would have to question that!

      I guess it's a judgement call. All employees who use village vehicles are aware of our policies and do their utmost to comply with them.

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