CRESTVIEW — As city firefighters look to keep pace with Crestview’s growth, Chief Joe Traylor has asked the City Council to approve a lease-purchase agreement to acquire two new fire trucks.
The Pierce Saber pumpers will allow the Crestview Fire Department to retire its two oldest fire engines, including a 1985 pumper for which replacement parts are no longer obtainable.
Under the arrangement with Pierce’s leasing company, PNC Equipment Finance, the city has the option to keep the fire trucks at the end of the seven-year lease period in 2023.
City Clerk Betsy Roy, who worked with Traylor on the lease details, said under the $902,880 arrangement, the first $109,590 payment would fall due in May 2017.
“And we get two shiny trucks,” Roy said. “We have the option at the end (of the lease) to turn them in and get two new shiny trucks.”
MAINTENANCE
The lease cost also includes regular maintenance costs, which currently the fire department has to pay for, Roy said.
“What this will allow us to do is put in place a process where we can have an efficient and cost-effective way to manage growth,” Traylor told the City Council.
As the city begins looking for land in the Old Bethel Road area on which to build a northwest Crestview fire station in anticipation of predicted growth, “we will have vehicles than can immediately be put there,” Traylor said.
“We'd be planning ahead for that so it wouldn't be an ‘oh-my-God-we-have-to-do-it-tomorrow’ scenario,” he said.
While scheduled routine preventative maintenance on the new vehicles was included in Pierce’s bid, it was inadvertently omitted from the contract.
At the City Council’s direction, Traylor returned to Pierce to assure the provision was included.
“We got that taken care of and the leasing company and the Pierce corporation and the city will be happy with it,” Traylor said.
While the fire department’s trucks don’t put on many miles every year—the average is about 6,000 miles, Traylor said—wear and tear comes from service at a fire scene.
“Fire trucks don't necessarily drive long distances, but they sit there for several hours with the motors running at high RPMs while they pump water,” he said.
MAY 23 APPROVAL
Traylor expects the council will consider the contract at a special meeting called for May 23 before its scheduled workshop.
Leasing the two new engines won’t cost much more than the city paid for two new fire trucks in 2007 with maintenance costs figured in, Traylor said.
The new trucks will be built to meet the Crestview Fire Department’s requirements, Traylor said, right down to the paint scheme.
“They’ll build the trucks to our specifications,” he said. “These are trucks that are in common use throughout the United States. They have a very good track record.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Omission delays Crestview fire trucks lease approval (VIDEO)