Century Bank donates an unusual gift to school

When thinking of donations to a public school system, a skid steer might not immediately come to mind, but when Century Bank of the Ozarks president and CEO Chris Harlin offered one to Bakersfield School superintendent Dr. Amy Padgett recently, she didn't hesitate to say yes.

"It's a really nice donation – a luxury – that we could never have afforded," Padgett said. "There are so many things we can use it for."

One of the first projects will be helping to clean up and restore the school's ballfield and park, which incurred severe damage in an EF-3 tornado that hit Bakersfield March 14, following by heavy rain that produced flooding during the first week of April. Thinking about that destruction inspired Harlin to offer the skid steer to the school.

"We purchased the skid steer a few years ago, anticipating doing some work here and there," Harlin said. "When that work was all accomplished, it was just sitting there collecting dust. We talked awhile about selling it, but then, after the disasters hit Bakersfield, it seemed like a good option to donate it to the school to help them rebuilt the ballfields and park and other damaged areas."

The New Holland brand skid steer is a compact, multipurpose piece of construction equipment. The machine donated to the school, valued at $60,000, came with four attachments: lifting forks, a bucket, grapple and a tree shear. 

 "We're going to be using it a lot," Padgett said. "There is so much dirt work to be done. And also, the school doesn't have a loading dock. The skid steer has forks for lifting and loading things. And it means we can clear snow off our own roads and parking areas instead of hiring someone to do it."

Padgett said the skid steer will also be used as a learning tool for the new building trades project the school is launching. "There's an industrial maintenance part of the project where the students learn to do things like change the oil and check the tires on vehicles," she said. "They won't be operating the skid steer, but they can look at its hydraulics and understand how they work."

Padgett and her dad, Gerald Farris, brought a trailer to Gainesville last week to pick up the gift. Farris, now retired from a career of building houses, is "used to things like that." He often helps with projects around the school, and that day he "hopped right in" to get it loaded on the trailer. Then "he didn't want to get out of it," Padgett said, laughing. "He said it was the nicest thing like that he'd ever been in."

The skid steer has just 13 hours on its operational timer, she said.

Harlin is glad the gift was so well received. "We want to take care of our community and our schools, and when these kinds of things work out, it's good for all of us," he said.