Hall County to purchase $7M in new fire vehicles

Posted 11:57AM on Monday, January 13, 2020

Later this year, Hall County firefighters will have nine new vehicles in the Hall County Fire Services fleet.

Hall County Commissioners approved the purchase of eight new pumper trucks and one new ladder truck for the department at their voting session on Thursday, Jan. 9.

With the vote, the county will now order the new vehicles, which will have to be built and then delivered to the county, a process that will take about 10 months.

Hall County Fire Chief Chris Armstrong said last week the new pumper trucks will replace similar vehicles currently in use.

"The new vehicles will come with LED lighting and different upgrades like that," Armstrong said. "They have what they call the diesel emissions systems in them...so they're cleaner, they run more efficient versus the older models, so we'll get those kind of benefits from the newer models."

The new aerial apparatus - or ladder truck - will be ordered at the same time as the pumper trucks, even though Armstrong said its permanent home at Station 17 has yet to be built. The new station is scheduled for construction in the Lanier Islands Parkway area to accommodate the need for fire services in that part of the county. The ladder truck will arrive before the station is completed, but Armstrong said the department will still be able to use the new vehicle.

"Currently, we don't have any spare aerial apparatus," Armstrong said. "That truck will run as a spare unit until that station is open and then it will move to that station full-time."

The new pumper trucks will cost $5.96 million and the vehicles will be paid for with funds from SPLOST VIII, which was approved in November. The new ladder truck will be funded with $1.13 million from SPLOST VII. County finance officials said the county will save $178,000 by pre-paying for all nine vehicles.

B.J. Williams