New Philadelphia City Council considers purchase of $1.4 million fire rescue truck

NEW PHILADELPHIA ‒ City council is being asked to allocate $1.4 million to purchase a new rescue truck for the New Philadelphia Fire Department.

The current truck, purchased in 2003 for $465,000, is beginning to have problems, Fire Chief Jim Parrish told council on Monday.

The truck is used for auto accidents, industrial accidents and farming accidents. It carries all of the department's extrication equipment. In addition, it has a pump and can function as a fire engine.

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Rising costs of equipment

Parrish said there are two reasons to purchase a new rescue truck now. First, there is a long wait time — 2.8 years — for delivery, because of the high demand for fire equipment now.

The other is cost. Currently, fire equipment is going up in price by about 12% and 16% per year. "This stuff is really expensive, and it's getting more expensive," the chief said.

The fire department will be buying the truck from the Pierce Manufacturing of Appleton, Wisc. The $1.4 million price tag is good through November.

If the purchase of the new truck is approved, the department will sell the old rescue truck and a 1997 dive truck and use the money to buy a trailer to carry specialized rescue equipment.

Earlier this year, the fire department took delivery of a new $1.8 million ladder truck after the old one began experiencing a series of maintenance issues. City officials determined that it was cheaper to buy a new ladder truck rather than pour money into an aging vehicle that would continue to require expensive repairs.

Support from council members

Councilman Dean Holland, a former fire chief, spoke in favor of purchasing the truck now.

"If we wait another year and we don't order now, in a year that $1.4 million will go to $1.6 million," he said. "That's the kind of increase that we're looking at. We wait two years, there's no telling what it will be. Based on the current increases, the 12% I think is very conservative. I think it's going to be closer to 17%. I think that's the real world and what we're going to be facing."

Councilman Kelly Ricklic said the department has done a good job of taking care of the equipment that it has.

"I want to thank the police station and the fire station for maintaining their equipment that we provided them," he said. "I go by the stations and I see them washing their vehicles and taking care of things. I think that's impressive to the public. If you buy something, you have the money to pay for it, but it's also important once you get that is to maintain it to get the life expectancy and beyond that we have shown throughout the whole city, not just these two departments."

Council President Don Kemp assigned the issue to Holland's Safety, Health & Service Committee to make a recommendation to council.

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: New Philadelphia considers purchase of $1.4 million fire rescue truck