This Cat Presents a Weighty Dilemma : Torrance: City officials are trying to unload a $104,000 loader that is too heavy to move to job sites.

At the time, Torrance officials say, the big yellow loader seemed like a good idea.

It was summer of 1990, and the city needed a new tractor for general excavation and other uses. So it purchased one, a Caterpillar 953, for $104,000.

But when the Cat arrived in Torrance, it quickly turned into a six-figure headache.

For nearly two years, it has been confined to the city’s public-works yard off Madrona Avenue while officials ponder how to move it.

The problem is one of sheer weight. The city, as it turned out, has no trailer strong enough to carry the massive mustard-colored loader to jobs around Torrance.

“I will admit to you, I was surprised it came in as heavy as it was,” said city Fleet-Services Director Ralph Ishmael, who estimates the loader weighs 46,000 pounds.

“Had we known it was that big, we probably would not have purchased it,” said Street Services Director Richard Garcia as he looked at the Cat sitting amid other equipment in the city yard.

With its wide-track bottom, the loader moves too slowly to travel city streets on its own, officials say. Moving it would require not only a new trailer, but also a new truck with strong braking capacity, Ishmael said. And although the city has considered trading it for a smaller model, he said “there’s absolutely no market to do any trading right now.”

So the big Cat is used in the city yard to haul dirt, clocking a mere 98 hours of use to date, city officials said.

“It has been used, but not for its primary purpose,” said City Manager LeRoy J. Jackson.

City Hall, meanwhile, is telling its employee unions that an austere budget season means no raises for the city’s 1,528 employees in the coming year. And that is causing workers to question how the city can afford to continue offering executive perks such as car allowances and thousands of dollars in converted leave time and bonuses.

The idle Cat is another example of how the city wastes money, says Patrick Astredo, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 425 city public-works employees. In the wake of Astredo’s comments about the Cat at a Tuesday budget meeting, city administrators are preparing a report for the City Council.

Jackson said that although he wishes the problem had been resolved earlier, he is confident the city will find a solution. He would be more concerned, he said, “if it were a fire-engine truck that I couldn’t put out in service.”