OLYMPIA — The state will spend $3,500 to buy eight new leaf blowers equipped with mufflers to dampen the noise that annoys some officials on the Capitol campus in Olympia.
Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark wanted maintenance crews to use battery powered blowers, like the ones used around the Governor’s Mansion at the request of Gov. Jay Inslee.
The Department of Enterprise Services says the battery powered blowers don’t have the oomph to move the leaves that each fall fill 180 dump truck loads.
The Olympian reports the mufflers may reduce the sound of the gas-powered machines nearly to the level of battery powered machines.
The decision was made Thursday by Goldmark and three other members of the State Capitol Committee, which oversees the campus.
