Plymouth’s Street Superintendent Jim Marquardt brought fuel and truck bids to this week’s Board of Public Works and Safety meeting for opening.

The city only received one bid for fuel and that came from Ceres Solutions.   The bid for 22,500 gallons of low-sulfur diesel fuel and 40,000 gallons of gasoline 87 E 10.  The base price for diesel was $2.7290 per gallon and with the city’s applicable taxes, the price is $3.316 a gallon.  The base bid on the gasoline was $2.5150 per gallon.  With the taxes the city must pay the price per gallon increased to $2.8714.

Firm pricing for March 1,2024, through February 29, 2025, will be established when the City of Plymouth notifies Ceres Solutions of the desire to lock in the price.

Marquardt took the bids under advisement for review and will work with Ceres to lock in a price and report that information back to the Board of Public Works and Safety. 

The Street Superintendent did say the city’s locked-in price for 2023 was $3.56 a gallon for diesel and this year’s price would be $3.32.   Last year’s price for gasoline was $3.03 a gallon and this year’s price could be locked in at $2.87.

Mayor Listenberger said on WTCA’s Opinion Show Tuesday morning that the Street Superintendent locked in the fuel bids that morning for the price quoted in the meeting Monday evening. 

Marquardt said he solicited three bids for a new crew cab pickup truck for the Street Department. Auto Park Chrysler had a bid of $49,676 for a 2024 Dodge Ram 2500 crew cab.  They offered $2,000 for the trade-in making the bottom line $47,676.  Oliver Ford bid on a 2024 F250 crew cab XL with an MSR price of $57,000 and a City of Plymouth price of $53,000.  They offered a $500 trade-in so the net price to the city would be $53,999. McCormick Chevrolet in Nappanee was to bid on a 2024 Chevy Silverado 2500 heavy-duty but could not guarantee pricing or features.  They did provide a quoted price of $57,450 but it wasn’t a bid.    

Superintendent Marquardt was allowed to take the bids under advisement, review them, and award the bid to the lowest and most responsive bidder.