Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Keweenaw County Board Chairman Don Piche said at the April meeting that the county-owned tractor is need of major repairs, which the Board decided unanimously would be tens of thousands of dollars cheaper to repair than to replace.

EAGLE RIVER — A Kubota tractor owned by the county and used to keep the Sheriff’s Office and courthouse property cleared of snow in the winter is in need of repairs. But a quote is needed to approve the funding.

“Obviously, everybody here knows that the tractor’s broke down,” said Board Chairman Don Piche at the regular April meeting Wed. Two of the issues are a damaged PTO and leaking front axle seals.

Commissioner Jim Vivian asked for an estimate of how many hours per winter the tractor is used.

Sheriff Curt Pennala said the hours per winter varies from winter to winter, depending on the severity and length of the season, but during mid-winter, it is probably used between an hour and two hours per day.

Vivian then made a motion to get a quote to repair or replace the front axle seal.

Piche says that at one point, the tractor was operated when it was low on oil and that burned the clutches out in the Power Take-Off (PTO), and the quote to make repairs to the PTO unit was estimated between $6,700-7,000.

“And now, there’s the axle seals that have to be repaired on it,” he said, “and I don’t have a quote on what those are going to be, but I’m guessing the whole thing is going to be about $10,000 bucks to fix.”

Piche said that while he was considering the repairs, he thought the county did not need such a large tractor, and asked the tractor dealer for a quote on a smaller unit.

He said that the tractor the county owns is 50-horsepower, the smallest one he could get a quote on is a 34-H.P tractor, which the dealer said the County could purchase for $48,360.

“My opinion is,” said Piche, “that we should get it fixed. It’s a good tractor, it is what it is.”

Commissioner Del Rajala suggested that if the Board makes the decision to repair it, they should also adopt a proper procedure to maintain the tractor and identify somebody qualified to assume that responsibility. Piche added that in that event, only one person should be permitted to operate it as well.

Piche said that the mechanic who inspected the tractor told him that there is a rubber seal on the PTO that either broke, or deteriorated, and that was the cause of the oil leak.

He added that he owns a tractor very similar to the one in question and he checks those same seals every time he uses it. A pre-operation visual inspection is not difficult.

Rajala made the motion, which was supported by Bob DeMarois to obtain an actual quote, and approve the repairs to the tractor, and to have Mark Niemela as the person responsible for the maintenance of it.

On Friday, Piche said he heard from a local media report that the County Board had voted to purchase a new tractor, which he wanted the public to know is not going to happen.

“You heard what I said about that tractor,” Piche said in a telephone interview. “it’ll cost $6,700 to $7,000 to fix it. I said I just went out to get an idea of what a new one would cost, if we wanted to go down that road, which I knew darned well we weren’t going to.

“We’re certainly not buying a new tractor,” he said.