City moves up mower purchase by two years

CLINTONVILLE – The Clintonville Common Council approved the purchase of a 2026 Hustler Super Z mower with attachments from Jake’s Sales & Service in Beaver, Wisconsin for a total of $20,443.
The purchase was approved at the council’s May 12 meeting, with the funds for the purchase coming from the city’s capital funds. The cost of the mower is $13,725, with the remaining amount of the $20,443 for mower accessories. The new mower will replace a mower owned by the city that recently experienced a blown engine.
Director of Public Works for the city Clintonville Justin Mc Auly told the council that the mower with the blown engine was scheduled to be replaced in 2028.
“We looked at possibly replacing the engine, but this chassis is over 10 years old and has 1,500 hours on it,” Mc Auly said. “So, I think it’s beyond its life expectancy already.”
It was recommended by Mc Auly that the council approve moving up the mower purchase from 2028 to this year. He said that capital funds designated as “to be determined” could be used for the purchase, adding that another capital purchase scheduled for $20,000 in 2026 will not be happening.

“This is one of our mowers that does the majority of the mowing through the parks system,” Mc Auly said. “It also collects the ball diamonds.”
Council President Greg Rose added later in the discussion that the city’s woodchipper project cost “far less than expected.”
“If we think of just simply deferring the money that would have been sent to the woodchipper, it roughly comes out to this amount,” Rose said. “So, it’s not like this is an unexpected expense that we have to just take from somewhere else because of an emergency.”
Mc Auly said the city does have two of these mowers, but the other mower is around the same age and condition.
Ald. Stephanie Bonikowski asked if the company Mc Auly recommended the new mower be purchased from is the company the city normally deals with.
Mc Auly said there are not many Hustler mower dealers in Wisconsin, adding that the city has purchased two mowers from the company in the past three years.
“It’s our preferred Hustler dealer,” Mc Auly said.
Even though the new mower is an equivalent model as the mower that is being replaced, Mc Auly said the accessories that the city has for its current mower will not work on the new mower.
“Unfortunately, in the last 10 years they switched the chassis design of the mower and the bracket system so our collections system does not mount on it anymore,” Mc Auly said.
He said the city has roughly $5,000-$6,000 in accessories that cannot transfer over to the new mower.