The city of Ceres is buying a new street sweeper because the old one has reached the end of its life – but it’s not going to be a cheap purchase.

The Ceres City Council budgeted the $347,877 piece of equipment in the budget for the new fiscal year of 2024-25 and on Monday voted 5-0 to approved buying it from Schwarze Industries through the State of California’s Fleet Equipment Contract pricing (also known as Sourcewell pricing which guarantees the lowest price for vehicle purchases.

Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra pulled the item because of her concerns that the vehicle doesn’t meet the state’s zero emissions requirements.

“I don’t necessarily want to invest something that’s going to be technically illegal in three years,” said Vierra.

Public Works Director Sam Royal said the city looked into buying and testing an electric street sweeper and found the cost was double at $635,000. He said the new vehicle should last the city 10 to 12 years. Besides the exorbitant cost, Royal said the batteries could only allow the sweeper to run less than eight hours when the sweeper runs a 10-hour shift.

“There’s no grants or anything that we can utilize? ‘Cause my understanding is we’re supposed to be at almost 50 or 100 percent EV by 2027 and if we’re not even purchasing our first one I don’t understand how we’re going to meet our state requirements.”

Royal said he understood the city must have all electric vehicles by 2035.

The state does not expect emergency vehicles to be electric.