It’s electric. Sedona City Council voted 5-1 on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to buy a $331,404 Multihog ECV electric sweeper from Norwood Equipment Inc., contingent on satisfactory reviews from current owners of the machine. Councilman Derek Pfaff opposed the purchase and Councilman Pete Furman was absent.
The sweeper will clean the Uptown Parking Garage, the pedestrian underpass at Tlaquepaque and shared-use paths.
“I go back to it’s a piece of equipment,” Pfaff said. “It’s proven technology. Stick with what we know works. This is also a lot of handwringing over a street sweeper. We’re not buying a space shuttle.”
City staff gave council two options from Norwood: The electric model and the diesel Multihog CV 350, quoted at $247,527. Public Works staff recommended diesel. The electric model’s price was over the $250,000 council had budgeted when it approved the sweeper during the 2026-27 fiscal year budget process.
Public Works Director Roxanne Holland said a 15-year life cycle cost analysis put the diesel sweeper at $540,750 and the electric model at “just shy of $600,000.” The analysis assumed weekly cleaning of the Uptown garage and monthly cleaning of the Tlaquepaque underpass and shared-use paths. Specialized maintenance on the electric model would also mean transporting the sweeper to Phoenix for repairs.
“We did have to make some assumptions on our electricity cost for charging that because we don’t have our final rate yet because we’re still waiting for finalization on our solar panels at the garage from Arizona Public Service,” Holland said.
The agreement between the city and Arizona Water Company for a new water main to open the Uptown Parking Garage and infrastructure for the benefit of Uptown residents was tabled from the meeting’s consent items and rescheduled for the next regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27.
