All of Lansford Borough’s street equipment needs work, but buying a street sweeper could top the list of needs, Council Vice President Jay Doyle reported during committee meetings Tuesday.

“I got a list from the guys about all the vehicles that are sitting down there and what’s good and what’s not good with them,” he said. “We definitely need a sweeper.”

Doyle did not remember where the borough left the discussion on buying a sweeper, or what the outcome of former Councilman Bill Chuma’s search for a used sweeper was last year, he said.

Last May, council approved spending $75,000 on a new, used sweeper, and Chuma began a search. He had said at the time that Lansford wasn’t the only municipality looking for a good, used machine.

The borough did not find a used machine, and budgeted $100,000 for a “major equipment purchase” in its public works spending for this year.

Council President Bruce Markovich said previously that council hoped to allocate $100,000 was for a new street sweeper.

Doyle, who chairs the public works committee, asked for help with a street sweeper search saying, “I don’t particularly have the time or knowledge to know what I’m looking at.”

Councilman Joseph Butrie said that he’d help, and Councilman Jack Soberick said that the borough has been looking at the wrong type of machine for years.

“Every one that we’ve had, they listed as being the improper type of sweeper for the northeastern part of the country,” Soberick said referring to the sweeper manufacturer’s website.

“A recirculating air sweeper is not designed to pick up heavy cinders,” he said, noting that there are machines that can be used without water in the winter, too.

Soberick also tossed out whether it was worth spending $75,000 to $100,000 on a machine that gets used four times a year and then park it.

Doyle believed that the previous machines would break down early in the season, so regular street sweeping downtown wouldn’t happen after the whole town was completed.

Markovich noted after the meeting that the borough uses 220 tons of anti-skid and salt on the borough streets every year, and the material has to be picked up either off the streets, out of the sewer inlets, or out of Panther Creek.

“One way or the other you end up picking up that material,” he said.

The borough received a quote of $34,000 from private contractors to sweep streets when the borough’s sweeper was down, Markovich said.

“So, $100,000 is well spent,” he said.

The crews also need lawn mowers, Doyle said. A zero-turn machine is needed, as well as two self-propelled mowers, he said. They are doing maintenance on weed whackers, he said.

“Right now, I’m trying to get stuff for the spring, which would mean the sweeper, the zero turn and two mowers,” he said. “After that’s down, then we’ll start working on the other ones as they’re needed.

“Something is wrong with almost everything down there,” Doyle said.