VAN BUREN – Residents will get another shot at purchasing a payloader for the town’s Public Works Department next week, about three weeks after turning down the same request.

By the slimmest of margins possible, residents refused on Nov. 27 to purchase the payloader. In a 13-14 vote, residents followed the advice of Town Councilor Robert Learnard, saying no to purchasing the $85,000 machine.

After trading in the old payloader, the town wanted to use $42,924 of surplus money to pay for the replacement. The same question will face residents at a special town meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, in the Council Chambers at the town office.

“The new meeting is being held at the request of voters,” Town Manager Larry Cote said Wednesday. “The petition was presented to the Town Council on Dec. 4.”

The petition, with more than 80 signatures, was presented because of the Nov. 27 action, and the estimated cost of repairing the town’s payloader. The petition simply asked for another special town meeting to reconsider the question.

Cote said the town sought an estimate to repair to old machine, and that came in at over $20,000.

“There’s a little of everything that has to be repaired on the old machine,” Cote said. “It includes tires, bucket and front-end repairs and hydraulic hoses.”

The repairs alone are about half the cash outlay for the town to get a new machine.

The new machine, according to town office figures, would cost $86,500. That includes a five-year, 7,500 hour warranty. The town would get a trade-in amount of $42,076 for the old machine.

The money needed for the purchase, $44,426, would come from the town’s general surplus funds.

At the Nov. 27 special town meeting, Learnard, the town’s former Public Works Department superintendent, had said that the town’s old payloader was still in good shape.

Residents at the meeting went with Learnard’s assessment, despite objections and contradictions by Cote.

Discussion on the payloader took up most of the one-hour meeting.

Residents also will look at using up to $18,000 of general surplus funds to repair a 1985 backhoe loader. Preliminary estimates to repair the equipment was listed at $16,647.

The Town Council recommends adoption of the two proposals.