A New Way of Doing School Work

Bob Holt

At a time of declining financial resources for many school districts, the folks in Bluffton, Ohio, have turned to a utility work machine as one way to do more with less.

“This was a major purchase for us,” says Rod Russell, superintendent of the
school district that has about 1,200 students and an annual budget of just over $11 million. “Buying the Toolcat™ 5600 from Bobcat of Lima was the result of working with Bob Holt, maintenance supervisor, to evaluate our needs and determine how the utility work machine would save us time and money, and allow us to recoup our costs over a five-year period. It turned out to be a better decision that any of us could have imagined. For a school district, regardless of size, this is one terrific product.”

For years Holt and his crew had used a garden tractor and a riding lawn mower. They also rented equipment.

“The equipment we owned was old, slow and often in need of repair,” says Holt. “We were spending $2,000-3,000 a year just to keep it running. We incurred additional labor costs because it took so long to clear snow, cut grass and do other jobs with these machines.”

Here is a partial list of how the Toolcat 5600 is making many jobs around the Bluffton schools faster and easier:

Snow removal

“An average snowfall would mean 3-4 hours on the garden tractor blowing snow,” says Holt. “Now I can do all the sidewalks in 45 minutes, working in a warm, comfortable cab. I used to spend 2 hours sweeping a lighter snowfall. Now it takes about 20 minutes with the Toolcat unit and the Bobcat® angle broom.

Rod Russell

“In addition,” continues Holt, “the angle broom does such a good job that we have cut our salt useage by 75 percent. This attachment paid for itself the first year in salt savings.”

Mowing grass

Holt and his crew are responsible for mowing about 15 acres. “Not only does the Toolcat 5600 do a much better job than our old riding mower, but it has cut our mowing time in half. Part of the savings is the speed with which the Bobcat machine can travel from one athletic field to another (the longest distance is 2 miles roundtrip).”

Moving equipment and supplies

At the conclusion of the football season it used to take four people an entire day to haul away and store the goal posts, a ticket booth, bleachers,
blocking sleds and other items. Last fall, Holt did the job in 3-4 hours, working by himself on the 5600.

“That is just one job where the pallet forks have been a huge time and back-saver,” he says. “Another area where they play a big role is unloading trucks. For example, we used to unload every carton of paper by hand and then carry them into the school. What a job! Now we use the Toolcat 5600 to move pallets of paper right into the building.”

Looking back at the decision to purchase the utility work machine and attachments, Holt and Russell agree it was one wise choice.

“This equipment has saved us a lot of money,” says Holt. “When you add up what we were spending for overtime, repairs on other machines, cost of fuel (diesel instead of gas), equipment rental and downtime, it’s easy to justify the cost of the Toolcat unit.”

Adds Russell: “Once the community saw what the super-efficient 5600 could do, they understood why we bought it.”