The Fort Smith Sanitation Department will have new equipment, thanks to two ordinances approved Tuesday by the Board of Directors.

Sanitation Director Kyle Foreman requested two master lease agreements for an excavator and compactor for use at the city landfill.

Both pieces of machinery will be brand new 2019 models, with separate maintenance warranties, replacing a 2012 compactor and 1998 excavator, respectively. The leases will be three years long — the annual payment for the excavator is more than $115,500 and nearly $325,000 for the compactor — with the option to purchase “at that time for fair market value,” according to a memo from Foreman to City Administrator Carl Geffken.

Foreman previously told the board his department owned all but two pieces of equipment. These additions bring that number to four. One piece of equipment will be city-owned after 2019, though, Foreman noted.

“The compactor is our mainline waste handling piece of equipment. It helps us stay in compliance with all of our (Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality) regulations,” Foreman said. “The excavator helps us move dirt, which helps us with daily cover, which is also a requirement of the state.”

The department’s need for new equipment has been a topic of discussion for the Board of Directors since Foreman presented the department’s capital improvement plan last fall. Most of the needs, Foreman said, are related to its aging fleet of machinery.

Half of the hauling fleet, think trash trucks, is past its useful life. Several months ago all of the landfill equipment fit into the category. The department has been using bulldozers as compactors, which doesn’t have the same effectiveness as a compactor, but Foreman said it was better than nothing.

“When we don’t have the proper equipment, we’re losing air space and money,” Foreman said previously. “Yeah, it’s great we have 155 years of life in our landfill — we’re very fortunate — but we don’t need to be misusing it today.”

Foreman also said he has had to decide between hiring more employees to reduce workload or purchasing equipment the employees he already has can use to do their job effectively.

“Kyle, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate that you’re on top of this. I’ve been out to the landfill myself. I’ve seen that excavator you have. I’ve seen the compactor that you have, and you are in desperate need of these things. You’re not in a little bit of need,” said At-large Director Robyn Dawson. “I just appreciate that you have enough vision to be looking out to the future. Fort Smith is lucky to have that landfill and I appreciate that you’re getting this going.”

Dawson emphasized to her fellow directors who might not have visited the landfill recently, “he needs this so bad.”

Equipment used at the landfill ranges from 6 months to 20 years old, Foreman told the directors when they approved several capital improvement plans.

Former At-large Director Tracy Pennartz asked in November if the city had 20-year-old equipment that worked, to which Foreman said “work” is a relative term.

When asked Tuesday whether the excavator was the machinery he was previously referring to, Foreman said it wasn’t.

“We still have 20-year-old garbage trucks that are still running,” Foreman said. “But that’s another meeting for another day.”

Sanitation anticipates a need of $2.7 million in 2019, all of which will go to equipment, according to its capital improvement plan.