CRESTVIEW — When city leaders look to the future, their eyes land on Old Bethel Road.
Following the city’s growth spurt south of Interstate 10 beginning in the early 2000s, city planners and consultants believe northwest Crestview will be the next area of growth.
And the Crestview Fire Department wants to be ready.
“We know we're going to have growth on the north end of town,” Fire Chief Joe Traylor told the City Council at its March 14 meeting. “It's prime real estate for development.”
With the economy recovered from the late 2000s downturn, real estate agents are seeing new interest in Old Bethel Road.
“It is a popular area,” Re/Max Realtor Dino Sinopoli said. “There’s new homes being built in Liberty Oaks, and right across from them is a new subdivision Adams Homes is finishing off now.”
That’s good for the real estate industry and the city’s tax coffers, but it worries Traylor.
NEW TRUCKS, NEW STATION
To keep residents’ fire insurance rates low, Crestview Fire Department responders must arrive at a structure fire within five minutes of the call. The current average response is four minutes, Traylor said.
But with the closest firehouse being the Woodruff Avenue main station, the Old Bethel area is outside that critical window.
“One minute can make the difference between saving a house and losing a house,” Almarante Fire District commissioner Mack Wilkins said March 10.
To bring future Old Bethel development into the four- to five-minute response window, Traylor has called for a new fire station in north Crestview and fire trucks to equip it.
With passage of the fire department’s 2015-16 budget, the city took the first steps toward meeting that goal by creating what Traylor called a “trust fund” that, like North Okaloosa Fire District’s similar arrangement, lets the agency set money aside for cash equipment purchases.
Meanwhile, the fire department must replace some equipment. Its oldest truck is a 1985 model, “that costs more to fix than run,” City Clerk Betsy Roy said.
LEASE VS. BUY
Roy and Traylor have brainstormed alternatives to purchasing new fire engines, which each can cost a quarter of a million dollars. Financing the equipment can add tens of thousands of dollars to the taxpayers’ bill.
For example, the department’s two newest trucks, purchased in 2007, would have cost $450,000 if the city paid cash. With finance charges, they cost $575,000, Traylor stated in a March 8 memo to the City Council.
Plus, the city pays annual maintenance costs on the vehicles, which, as they age, will continue to rise. The department recently had to replace one truck’s motor, for example, Traylor said.
Traylor and Deputy Chief Tony Holland, who researched leasing and lease-purchase options, learned that two new trucks could be leased for seven years for $767,120, including maintenance costs.
COUNCIL APPROVAL
“At end of lease, we have the option to pay $135,000 and the title is transferred to us, or we tell them, ‘Come get these two trucks and bring us two new ones,’ so we don't end up in the situation where we’re operating 30-year-old pieces of equipment,” Traylor said.
“With the cost benefit of leasing compared to direct purchase, we would save $135,000,” Traylor said. “Over the seven-year period, we would save in the finance charges.”
The city is at least two years away from buying new fire trucks, but wants to lay the groundwork for a purchase when it becomes necessary, Roy said.
Roy and Traylor now have the council’s approval to continue researching leasing and purchase options.
“I believe we will be able to fund these two vehicles and still be able to put money in a trust fund for the construction of a fourth fire station,” Traylor said.
And that’s good, because, as Sinopoli said, “North Crestview has the most amount of land to develop in the county.”
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LEASE VS. FINANCE
With the City Council’s unanimous approval March 14, the Crestview Fire Department will research acquisition of two new fire trucks.
Two Pierce Custom Saber Pumpers:
Cash purchase: $902,880 (excludes finance charges and maintenance costs)
Seven-year lease: $109,590 per year, $767,120 total (includes maintenance costs)
Savings: $135,760 (plus cost of purchase finance charges)
Purchase option at end of lease: $135,000
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PRESENT EQUIPMENT
The Crestview Fire Department currently has:
Fire stations: three
Fire engines: four (including one back-up), 75-foot ladder with pump
Command/rescue vehicle: one
Source: Crestview Fire Dept.
LEASE VS. FINANCE
With the City Council’s unanimous approval March 14, the Crestview Fire Department will research acquisition of two new fire trucks.
Two Pierce Custom Saber Pumpers:
Cash purchase: $902,880 (excludes finance charges and maintenance costs)
Seven-year lease: $109,590 per year, $767,120 total (includes maintenance costs)
Savings: $135,760 (plus cost of purchase finance charges)
Purchase option at end of lease: $135,000
—
PRESENT EQUIPMENT
The Crestview Fire Department currently has:
Fire stations: three
Fire engines: four (including one back-up), 75-foot ladder with pump
Command/rescue vehicle: one
Source: Crestview Fire Dept.
LEASE VS. FINANCE; PRESENT EQUIPMENT
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview fire department eyes new station, engines to meet demand