JAY — School Committee members voted Thursday to authorize the superintendent to look into leasing a small snow clearing machine, and if that is not possible, to buy a used one.

The School Department had used a skid steer owned by the town to clear snow from sidewalks and entrance areas to schools for 13 years but that option is no longer available, Superintendent Robert Wall said.

The town had a piece of equipment break and it is not going to be replaced and needs to use the skid steer to load sand into dump trucks while the two loaders are out clearing snow, school maintenance worker and bus driver Brian Shink said.

Wall said he learned in early December that the town needed the equipment.

The sidewalks and entrances need to be kept clear because those areas can get very slippery during snowstorms, Wall said.

During a recent storm, a custodian used a snowblower but it is dangerous to have one person working alone and too much for one person, Wall said.

Wall and Shink had looked into buying a used skidder in good shape. There is one at R.S. Osgood & Sons in East Dixfield that could be bought for $19,000. A plow attachment brings the cost up to $22,050.

The paint is a little faded but it is like new, Shink said.

“One option we haven’t talked about is contracting it out,” Chairwoman Mary Redmond-Luce said. “We don’t have the money in the budget.”

Shink said he didn’t know if that was an option because of the union contract.

“You’re taking work away from the union,” Shink said.

It is work that school employees currently do, he said.

Wall said there are some monetary offsets in the budget that could be used to buy the equipment. He would rather not use it, he said, but the grounds need to be kept safe. If they’re not, someone could get hurt and there could also be a lawsuit, he said.

The offsets include using $13,500 saved from not replacing the maintenance director when she left for a job at another school system. The remaining money will come from grounds and equipment between $1,000 to $2,500 from each school’s account.

There could also be other attachments that could be bought in the future, Shink said.

The system does have a tractor but it gets many hours of use during the summer to mow the grounds.

School Committee member Dan DiPompo asked if they could lease equipment for the winter months instead of buying one now.

Member Tammy Dwinal-Shufelt asked for all three scenarios to be looked at and be brought back to the board.

“It kind of puts us on the spot,” Wall said. “If we have a number of snowstorms, we’re in trouble.”

Mike Schaedler, another member, said he didn’t want to wait.

He agreed with DiPompo and suggested finding out if one can be leased, and if not, buy one.

“We need to have everything safe and correct,” he said.

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