By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Decatur’s city council and board of works are expected to make some difficult decisions about a new aerial fire truck at their next meetings, on May 6.
The fire department’s current aerial is some 30 years old and beginning to show its age. Some repairs have been made by local firefighters and the city mechanic, but the truck “is starting to act up here and there,” and the company that made it is out of business, Fire Chief Jeff Sheets said at an earlier meeting.
Bringing in a new aerial can be a lengthy and costly process, so the city’s board of works some time ago decided that the wheels to do so must begin to turn as soon as possible.
The way to purchase a new truck in the past can now take up to four years. However, the MacQueen Co., a dealer for Pierce fire trucks (which has supplied Decatur trucks for years), now and again has “stock” trucks that it offers for sale.
A MacQueen agent has one available for Decatur now, but a purchase decision must be made soon.
That truck would cost around $2.5 million and could be arriving within a year or so. To purchase a new truck through the process used in the past would not only require four years to obtain, but cost roughly $4 million.
The stock truck would have all the specifications needed for the Decatur department and a few modifications could be made, Sheets pointed out.
Clerk-treasurer Kevin Hackman will present financing options at the May 6 meetings.
He told WZBD.com that financing would be over five to seven years and be done through the purchase of LIT-Public Safety funds.
“Council would like options, including no money down, or possibly putting a $500,000 or $1 million down payment on the purchase to limit the debt service,” Hackman explained.
AND… The bad news comes in a double dose. Sheets informed the board of works at a previous meeting that a 2002 pumper truck, the oldest of the department’s 11 trucks, is having its own problems and recently failed a DOT (Department of Transportation) inspection.
If it cannot pass inspection in the next two years, “it will have to be pulled out of service,” Sheets said.
A replacement would likely cost $1 million to $1.2 million and would probably take three years to arrive.
City officials and Sheets agreed, however, that the No. 1 priority is a new aerial truck.
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