USDA grant helps fund Hedley truck

A new trash truck is making the rounds in Hedley thanks to a grant from the US Department of Agriculture and the hard work of city officials.

City Manager Kim Davis said USDA provided $60,000 and the city financed the remaining $112,000 through Herring Bank in order to purchase the new truck.

The new Mack truck will take the place of a 1979 truck that the city had purchased used about six years ago, according to Mayor Carrie Butler.

“I’m just super excited for our little town,” Butler said. “We’ve been struggling for a long time with the old truck, and Kim has done a wonderful job and the council has been onboard.”

Butler said the new truck is part of a bigger effort to clean up Hedley and make improvements around town.

“We want to get all of our alleys cleaned out so we don’t scratch up our new truck” she said.
In addition to collecting trash from Hedley residents, the city also services several rural accounts and hopes to add more accounts now that it has more reliable equipment.

City foreman L.W. Henshaw said there were several times that only miracles kept the old truck running, and he said that it was showing less and less power as it got older.

Davis started working on the grant to get a new trash truck back in March with the help of Clyde Jenkins at the Amarillo USDA office.

Hedley officials saw they will now turn their attention to applying for a Texas Parks & Wildlife grant to create a new city park for the community.