With nearly 5,000 hours of use, the county is exercising a buyback option on three motor graders and opened bids for new ones.

During the Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday county purchasing agent Tonga Vinson opened three bids, two from Stribling Equipment and one from Puckett Machinery.

Stribling’s first bid was for a 2015 John Deere model 672GP for $257,000 per machine with a guaranteed buyback of $159,000 per machine after 60 months.

Stribling’s other bid was for a 2015 John Deere model 670GP for $231,000 per machine with a buyback of $143,500 after 60 months.

Puckett Machinery submitted a bid for a 2015 Caterpillar model 12M3 for $237,727 per machine with a buyback of $139,500 after 60 months.

District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon asked what was the difference in the prices of the machinery.

“We have a minimum spec on weight and the different models are different weighted machines,” Vinson explained. “We have traditionally rejected any bid that didn’t meet our minimum specifications and I will follow that same process here.”

Vinson asked the board to take the information under advisement so that she could review the bids before making a recommendation.