The Bellefontaine Fire Department will soon be getting a new 1,000-gallon pumper truck after the Bellefontaine City Council approved emergency funds in the amount of $1,053,000 for the purchase of the vehicle at its regular meeting Tuesday, Oct. 28.
Chief Brian Wilson has long given council updates on the various mechanical difficulties suffered by the two pumper trucks that are currently in use with the BFD, both of which are approaching the end of their usefulness.
A replacement pumper truck has already been ordered and paid for by the city; however, the delivery date of the vehicle to the BFD is estimated to be a minimum of three years from now.
But an off-hand phone call to one of the BFD’s suppliers uncovered a lead on a Sutphen Custom Pumper Stock 603 truck from Heritage Fire Equipment of Columbus that is expected to come off Sutphen’s Urbana line in November.
Learning that the brand new pumper was available if they acted quickly, Chief Wilson informed Mayor David Crissman of the deal. Crissman speedily put the purchase ordinance before the council at Tuesday’s meeting, asking that the three-reading rule for the appropriation be suspended so that the money could be immediately made available.
The council obliged the mayor’s request by suspending the three-reading rule, passing, then adopting the approximately $1 million expenditure with three unanimous votes, allowing the administration to immediately sign a contract for the purchase the new vehicle.
The money for the BFD’s new pumper will come from the city’s capital improvement funds and deal will be brokered by the Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Program.
Chief Wilson said that the two trucks now in service are 23 and 27 years old, respectively, and are showing their age. Both have been in and out of service almost continuously over the past several months.
“They’re both just aging, they’ve served their time and we’re starting to Band-Aid these things to death,” Chief Wilson said of the BFD’s current pumpers. “They have a life-span just like anything else.”
As noted, the new pumper truck is expected to be completed in November and the BFD will be looking to take possession of it as soon as possible after that.
In other matters, the council unanimously passed an ordnance making supplemental appropriations for auditor, city hall, tax, water and wastewater departments.
After the adoption of the last ordinance on the agenda, the council broke into executive session at 7:45 p.m. to consider the purchase/sale of property and adjourned the meeting immediately following the session at 8:05 p.m without taking further action.
