HOMER — The Banks County Commission has approved the purchase of a new fire truck to replace an aging member of the county's fleet.
At Tuesday night's meeting, the commission approved purchasing a $290,000 fire truck from HME Inc., to be placed at the county's busiest station at Banks Crossing.
With the purchase, a 37-year-old Chevrolet fire truck that Banks County Fire/EMS Chief Steve Nichols said is “well beyond its years of service.”
Discussing the situation after the meeting, Nichols said, “We had gotten ourselves in the position of where we had a 1980 Chevrolet FMC fire truck that has been here for a long time. It was actually bought used from a major department in the metro area. It’s high mileage, it had a lot of problems with it, and it was time to be replaced. Fortunately, the [commission] saw the same need, and they allowed us to purchase a new truck.”
Nichols said the county didn’t purchase the first truck that came along, but rather spent time looking for the best fit for the county at the most affordable price.
“We spent several months now looking at different dealers,” Nichols said. “We’ve looked at everything we could find out there as far as demos went, used trucks, even looking into the idea of new trucks. New truck purchases are extremely high. This particular vehicle that we got, we saved the county probably about $40,000 over the purchase of a new truck and it’s got 2,000 miles on it, so it’s basically a new truck.”
While the truck being retired was assigned to the Davis Academy fire station, the new truck will go to another station.
“The truck will be assigned to Station 31, which is the Banks Crossing station, the busiest station we’ve got,” Nichols said. “The HME that’s there will be moved from that station over to the station at Katfish Korner. We’re going to move it out there, take the truck that’s there and it’ll be put into the [county’s] Homer station, and the Homer truck will be moved out. Basically what we’re doing is kind of relocating some of the trucks around. The higher mileage trucks will be put out to the volunteer stations that don’t run as many calls as we do with our paid stations. We’re just spreading the wealth around so we can get some more years of service out of the trucks.”
Banks County Commission Chairman Jimmy Hooper said commissioners are pleased that Nichols could recommend a suitable truck with a lower price than had it not been a demonstration unit.
“We’re excited!” Hooper said. “We’re getting a new fire truck that’s state of the art, and going to house it at our most active station, which is down at the interstate. It’s a great deal. I congratulate Fire Chief Nichols for finding us such a good deal. It’s been a lot of work and it’s money well spent. We’ve been good stewards of the money. This is going to improve our fire department, might even help us on our ISO rating down the road sometime.”
Money for the purchase will come out of the county’s capital fund.
“We’ve been saving money, so we’re very efficient with our money and we save every penny,” Hooper said. “It’ll be replaced with 2017 SPLOST on down the road two or three years.”
Asked for a timetable on delivery of the new truck, Nichols said, “We will have it by the end of this week.”
The county will transfer equipment from the truck being retired onto the new truck. Additional optional equipment also will be mounted on the new truck, as well as brackets in the compartments.
In addition to a new fire truck, the commission also approved additional needed equipment, including forestry hoses.
“We got approval for some additional forestry line that we use on brush fires and wildfires,” Nichols said. “We were in huge need of that. The nozzles and the line that we have is pretty much gone – worn out. We’ve had a few increases in brush fires this year due to the dry weather and no rain, so that’s a plus for us to get that additional line to put on the trucks.”
Cost for the forestry hose and five replacement nozzles is $3,290.
Additionally, the commission approved the purchase for a set of rescue jacks to stabilize vehicles during extrication of trapped occupants. Those items will be placed on the new Engine 31 when they arrive, and will cost $1,890.
Money for the equipment purchases also will come out of the county’s capital funds, and those items will be ordered Wednesday, Nichols said.
Nichols thanked commissioners for supporting the fire department’s needs.
“We appreciate your long-range plan, too,” Hooper told Nichols.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/4/524105/banks-county-votes-to-replace-37-year-old-fire-truck