By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
It’s one of those items that cost the proverbial “fortune” and yet is rarely used – if at all. But it is, quite simply, something that you cannot be without.
That was the thought expressed by some members of Decatur City Council at its meeting Tuesday night.
It was a meeting at which council approved spending approximately $1 million dollars … and that’s only a down payment!
“That’s a lot of money, and for something we will hardly use … if at all,” one member of council said afterward. “But we have to do it, we just do.”
“It” is a new aerial truck for the Decatur Fire Department. A truck whose ladder can take a firefighter as high as 100 feet at a certain angle. The total cost will be roughly $2.5 million.
Decatur’s current aerial truck is 28 years old and beginning to show its age in various ways.
The city could order a truck through the usual procedure, but it would take four years to assemble before being ready to use. That would put the current aerial at age 32 years old.
Fire Chief Jeff Sheets, however, found that 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. They can be obtained within a year of so.
Those have some miles on them, having been used for demonstrations and the like.
A stock truck, however, would have all the specifications needed for the Decatur department and a few modifications could be made, Sheets pointed out.
Decatur put in a bid for one and secured it, with some funds needed to be coming to MacQueen within a reasonable time.
So after a lengthy discussion at its Tuesday meeting, council approved the down payment (which will help lower the city’s debt service) and decided to figure out how to finance the rest of the purchase within the next few months, as the truck is being made ready for Decatur.
The debt service will be spread over seven years.
The city has money in its LIT (Local Income Taxes) fund and those can only be used for public safety. A fire truck certainly qualifies.
Other funds which could be used are those the surrounding townships pay for fire protection.
(That sparked a brief discussion about how those services are being provided at an extremely low rate.)
At one point, former council member Craig Coshow, from his seat in the audience, said if the city had no aerial truck, local businesses would likely see a rise in their insurance rates.
“Yes, every business in the city needs this (aerial truck),” Mayor Dan Rickord added.
