County to drop $488,940 on a new fleet of golf carts

With a golf cart fleet 10 or more years old, a committee of Ozaukee County supervisors voted earlier this month to spend nearly half a million dollars to replace 120 carts at the two county-owned golf courses.

The Natural Resources Committee voted unanimously to spend $488,940 on 120 Yamaha carts for use at Hawthorne Hills and Mee-Kwon golf courses to replace the current fleet of 2016 Club Car Precedent models.

“The Precedents have been becoming unreliable in the last two years. There have been six blown engines to date and many other component failures,” county Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck told the committee.

In addition, he said the Precedents do not have a replacement engine available as they have discontinued the Subaru engine line.

“The engines in need of repair must be shipped to a third party in North Carolina for a complete overhaul,” which averages about $25,000 apiece and a down time of about a month, he said.

  “The failure rate is expected to increase in the next season,” he said.

The seats of the carts have also become torn and tattered, he said.

“Cosmetically and functionally, they have gone past the need for repair.”

The mechanics at the golf courses have other Yamaha equipment and so having Yamaha carts makes it easier on them, as well, Struck said.

“Our mechanics appreciate the Yamaha models.”

Struck said Yamaha is the preferred vendor among customers, as well, and Yamaha is offering a discount to gain market share. The existing Club Car fleet would mostly be traded in with 13 of the best carts being held back to replace the backup carts that are also loaned to local communities and events.

The total cost of the new models is $681,240, but by trading in 107 of the 2016 models and 13 of some 2004 models, the county will be credited $192,300, for a net cost of $488,940.

Four of the older carts also will  be given to the county Highway Department and to the Justice Center.

Committee members urged Struck to move quickly because of the international trade situation and the fact the carts are largely made of aluminum, a metal subject to tariffs.