FOLEY – A new sweeper truck will be cleaning Foley streets a year earlier than planned and at a cost about $30,000 less than expected.

Foley City Council voted to buy the new sweeper truck for $297,173. Darryl Russell, public works director, said the truck should be delivered in about two weeks. He said he had planned to include a new truck in the department’s 2024 budget. A truck ordered in 2024 would be delivered about 12 to 14 months after being ordered.

Russell said the vendor who supplies the trucks told him a new 2023 model was available immediately.

“My vendor said ‘I’ve got one in Birmingham. Do you want it?’ It's $30,000 cheaper than the one proposed for 2024 would have been” Russell told council members.

The city now has a 2018 sweeper. Russell said having two sweepers will allow the department to clean more streets, in areas such as subdivisions, and have one vehicle available if the other truck requires maintenance.

“When it breaks down, you can’t clean downtown,” he said. "And we can’t do subdivisions. With this, we can sweep on a more regular basis.”

He said previous sweeper trucks in the city fleet have served for about 25 years before having to be replaced.

The new truck is an Elgin RegenX Regenerative Air Street Sweeper with a storage capacity of eight cubic yards and dual side brooms.