The City of Swift Current is already gearing up for winter next year.

City council agreed to pay nearly $194,000 on March 18 to purchase a Larue D40 snow blower from Regina's Falcon Equipment.

Swift Current received three submissions through an RFP posted on SaskTenders with the City electing for the cheapest option.

Greg Parsons, the general manager of infrastructure for the City of Swift Current, made Larue recommendation to council and had some experience to back it up.

"We actually purchased a Larue snow blower for out at the airport two years ago and it's been performing quite well," he said. "Everyone is quite happy with the way it is performing which also helped us make this decision was that we have confidence in what they're supplying us."

The new piece of equipment will replace a Sicard from 2009 with about 700 hours on it.

"When they put a windrow and it's blocks of ice, it's very hard on them," he said. "They're a machine that takes a lot of abuse and they're high maintenance. For example, a couple of the augers on one of them was beyond the point of repair and we had to repair them and they're about one-third of the cost of a new snow blower."

The City will be waiting around 300 days for the new snow blower to arrive creating a bit of a dilemma on what to do with the older Sicard.

"We probably might not get it before the end of the year and I would hate to give up our old one prior to getting our new one," he said. "So it might have to wait (to be sold) at our next surplus sale."

Swift Current budgeted $175,000 for the transaction and will be dipping into their equipment reserve fund to cover the nearly $19,000 shortfall.