The city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, decided it was time to do things a different way. But before we get into that, let’s set the scene. Kenosha is located next to the shores of Lake Michigan in the southeast corner of the state, offering lakefront views with several miles of beaches and parks. There’s a charm to this town that goes beyond just the opportunity to watch the waves roll in. They also have an electric railway streetcar system that connects citizens and visitors to many of the main areas and attractions around the city and hosts vintage car shows that draw on the historical role that Kenosha played in the auto industry.
Now it’s time to meet Jay Getka. He’s the fleet manager for the city of Kenosha and is responsible for approximately 480 pieces of equipment that provide infrastructure and keep the city running. But one piece of equipment needed more attention than the rest. For more than 15 years, they had been renting a trommel screen for their compost site, but recently, they were running into an issue.
“To acquire a rental at the timeframe we needed when our product was ready to run through the screen was proving difficult, due to the fact that not many trommel screens were available for rent in the area,” explained Getka. “So, a couple of years ago, we decided to put into our budget the funds necessary to purchase our own Vermeer trommel screen.”
It was time to make a change, but how they purchased their Vermeer trommel screen was unique.
Using Sourcewell to simplify the purchasing process
Getka and the city of Kenosha decided to use Sourcewell to help them buy their machine.
Sourcewell is a government organization that provides government, education and nonprofit entities a way to simplify the bidding process by offering cooperative purchasing agreements. That sentence was a mouthful. Basically, instead of going through your own bidding process, you can go through Sourcewell and choose from equipment with set prices.
Sourcewell satisfies the bid process by having competitively solicited contracts already in place. They work directly with the suppliers on contract pricing and present the options to you. Then you can purchase the equipment directly from the dealer.
Since the bid process is already satisfied, you save time and energy, and you can get the equipment faster than doing your own procurement. With the bidding aspect already complete, all you have to do is register to use Sourcewell and, once you get approved, select the machine you want. The process is usually a cleaner way to purchase equipment.
This was true for Getka’s experience with Sourcewell. He’s used Sourcewell in the past for purchasing other equipment for Kenosha, but this was his first time using it for a trommel screen.
“What makes me continue to go through Sourcewell is how easy it is to use,” explained Getka. “I don’t have to put a bid spec out there, wait for bids to come in, review bids and verify everything meets the specifications.”
Getka also enjoys the Sourcewell process when it comes time to purchase the equipment. “I’m able to talk directly to a salesperson and show them exactly what I want and explain to them I’m going to use a Sourcewell contract,” said Getka. “That way, I knew the number I have to budget for up front.”
As you can imagine, most municipalities, like the city of Kenosha, budget almost a year ahead of time. This played into the decision to pursue a cooperative purchasing agreement like Sourcewell. “I didn’t want to have to worry about possible price increases between the time we budgeted and the time to actually buy the machine,” explained Getka. “Knowing I could budget a firm dollar amount was a big reason why I went through Sourcewell.”
In addition to potentially avoiding price increases, deciding to go with a Sourcewell contract also ended up saving Getka time. “Going this route meant I didn’t have to do the hours of paperwork and legwork behind the scenes that nobody sees,” said Getka. “Using Sourcewell probably saved me two to three days of work overall, just for this one contract.”
Using Vermeer trommel screen to get the job done
Through their Sourcewell contract, Getka and the city of Kenosha ended up selecting a Vermeer TR5300 trommel screen to make the switch from renting to owning.
“Before we purchased the trommel screen, we’d been renting the same trommel screen from Vermeer Wisconsin,” said Getka. “We knew we wanted to buy that exact trommel screen from Vermeer. It does a great job meeting our composting needs, produces a quality product, is easy to use and has only needed limited cleaning maintenance.”
Part of the rental availability issue the city was running into was because of the limited time frame they were using the trommel screen. “We’ll use the trommel screen regularly for two solid weeks to produce compost, and then only use it on a limited basis the next four to six weeks,” explained Getka. “We do six weeks in the spring and then pick it back up again in October for the fall season.”
Now that they have their own TR5300, they’re planning on finding other uses for it, as well. “Owning it gives us the option to change our screen size and run anything different that we want to,” said Getka. “There’s a lot of possibilities now, and we’re looking into other ways we can use it in the future.”
Another benefit with choosing the TR5300 was the familiarity and ease of use for their operators. “The nice part about using the same machine we were renting is that our operators are familiar with it,” said Getka. “They know how to use it and hit the ground running as soon as it was up and operational.”
To help make sure Getka and Kenosha got their trommel screen running as quickly as possible, Tim Ziehm, a Vermeer Wisconsin sales specialist, went to their compost site to help get everything set up. “They provided us with great service and support,” said Getka. “Our salesperson brought the trommel screen to us and went through training with all of the mechanics here in our shop before we put it on the jobsite.”
After that, Ziehm gave the Kenosha operators a thorough walkthrough of the machine and made sure they knew the maintenance points to watch out for during daily operation. This is a standard part of the Vermeer customer experience, as a benefit of having a worldwide dealer network.
Since Kenosha started using the TR5300 earlier this year, their composting efforts have been running smoothly. Now, they’re able to run their operation year-round, without having to worry about rental availability and timing.
“Now we have the availability and the machine to process everything when we need to, as we meet the demand of our citizens and keep product moving on our jobsite,” said Getka. For more information about Sourcewell, visit the Sourcewell site.
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