Title
Trade-in and Purchase of New Golf Carts for Ironwood Golf Course (B)
Request to purchase new golf carts using a cooperative purchasing agreement.
Explanation
In 2015, the National Golf Foundation (NGF) was hired to review and provide a comprehensive financial report of Ironwood’s golf cart operation. Their recommendation was that owning a good fleet of power carts was integral to the success of public golf courses and that, if made, this improvement would benefit the long-term economic sustainability of Ironwood Golf Course. The current fleet was purchased at the end of 2015 from EZ GO Division of Textron, Inc. after a competitive solicitation by the City’s Procurement Division and approval by the City Commission.
EZ GO golf cars have been in production for almost 70 years and remain one of the most popular manufacturers on the world market today. Ironwood Golf Course has been using EZ GO golf carts for over 3 decades. In Gainesville, EZ GO is in 83% of the market, with vehicles at five different golf courses in town. Many other municipalities in North Central Florida have also chosen to use EZ GO (Ocala, Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Fernandina Beach, Palm Coast, and Palatka, just to name a few). Ironwood’s employees are well-versed and comfortable in using and repairing the EZ GO golf cart, and have benefitted from advanced training from Tech Force, EZ GO’s nationwide network of experienced technicians. Tech Force are EZ GO’s factory-trained workers, who carry a mobile parts inventory to prevent delays in repair. They are able to arrive next day to assess the vehicles when there is a problem. In addition, Ironwood has obtained additional vehicle parts over the years that can be used on the new fleet as well, so staff is equipped to handle many possible cart service issues for the EZ GO brand.
The Electric Blue Carts with the City of Gainesville logo across the front have been tremendous for displaying the city brand. The carts ha...
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