Town adds 6 Mack trucks to snowplow fleet

Hempstead Town has purchased six used Mack trucks ahead of the snow season for less than $35,000 each.

Supervisor Anthony Santino touted the purchase as a savings, saying that a brand-new truck of the same model can cost about $250,000. The town saved $1.3 million in buying the “pre-owned, gently used” vehicles, the supervisor said.

The 2003 trucks have fewer than 20,000 miles each on them and were recently refurbished, Santino said in a media release. The trucks will join the municipal fleet to clear snow and ice from town roads.

“Hempstead Town has faced some harsh winters in previous years,” Santino said in the statement. “The best way to deal with snowstorms and ice hazards is preparation and then execution. Adding these trucks to our ‘plowerful’ fleet was a strategic move to combat future snowfalls while saving the town over a million dollars.”

Santino, along with members of the town board, Dorothy Goosby, Gary Hudes and Anthony D’Esposito, showed off the trucks at the Roosevelt Highway Yard on Wednesday. 

The trucks will be used other times of the year by the town’s Sanitation, Highway, and Parks and Recreation departments. 

The trucks were purchased from Suffolk County-based FabTex. The trucks were previously owned by the New York City government, Santino said on Twitter.