HELEN — The Helen City Commission has approved spending nearly $30,000 for a new vehicle for the city's fire department.
At Tuesday afternoon's meeting, the commission approved the low bid of $25,976 from Mike Jones Ford of Eastanollee for a four-wheel-drive Ford F-150 Super Cab pickup truck to be used by the department. Officials said by the time they add emergency equipment and striping the vehicle is expected to cost close to $30,000.
Money for the unbudgeted purchase will come from the city's Other Capital Projects fund.
City Commissioner Cinnamon Spurlock was one of those who championed the purchase, raising the urgency of the issue at the end of the commission's previous meeting.
"I'm just proud that we're able to purchase a new vehicle because the one that we have is an early 1990s model Bronco that was a hand-me-down when we received it," Spurlock said. "It just makes sense to replace it with a new vehicle so we have that security that when they're out on calls that he can actually get to the call and not have a broken vehicle."
City Manager Jerry Elkins said the 1996 Ford Bronco was purchased from Union County in about 1997 after officials there purchased it and didn't like it. It was used by Helen Police Department until the past few years, when it was transferred to the fire department.
"It's a needed purchase," said Helen Fire Chief Jody Prickett. "The vehicle that we've got now is a '96 Ford Bronco, so it's 20 years old. It's been around, it's been passed down."
Prickett said the department's first-due response area includes a lot of mountainous territory and having the smaller vehicle will help his department reach those areas.
"Some of these places we go, even a fire truck has a hard time to get to," Prickett said. "If a med call comes out, we can get in that vehicle -- the one that's been approved to be purchased -- and it will be a whole lot easier to make patient contact, especially going up on Tray Mountain and running calls up in there."
Since the vehicle will have a covered bed, Prickett said in extreme situations where an ambulance can't access a scene fire department personnel could actually bring the patient out to EMS personnel.
"It's going to be a whole lot easier to use, and during the snow having a four-wheel-drive and not getting these big trucks out if we don't need to, that truck's going to come in handy," Prickett said.
