Brecksville City Council unanimously approved the $346,000 purchase of new equipment that cleans the city’s sewer system.

Officials said the one the city currently uses has just gotten “worn out.”

“What we’ve got now is a 1999,” said Ron Weidig, the city’s service director. “It really takes abuse. If you can imagine sucking all this debris out of the ground at a high rate of speed and blowing it into the back — it’s getting worn out.”

The city will buy the Vactor PLUS Combination Sewer Cleaner from Jack Doheny Companies, through the state’s administrative services purchasing program, for $346,181.

The news that the city needed a new one didn’t come as a surprise. The purchase had already been included in the 2013 budget, city officials said.

Weidig said maintenance on the existing cleaner is getting expensive, and officials recently realized buying a new one was the best option. 

“This is obviously a significant purchase for us,” Weidig told council during council’s safety-service committee meeting on Tuesday night.