If everything goes according to plan, the Smithville Fire Department could have its new ladder truck within three months.
The city council voted 4-0 Monday night to accept a $746,705 bid from EVS-Midsouth for a Pierce Impel 75-foot Hal Quint aerial ladder truck with a 1,750-gallon-per-minute pump/500 gallon tank.
The motion to accept the bid from EVS-Midsouth came from Alderman Danny Washer, and was seconded by Shawn Jacobs.
Steve White and Cecil Burger, along with Jacobs and Washer, all voted in favor of the purchase.
Alderman Gayla Hendrix was absent.
This was the lowest of the two bids submitted. The other bid was from Cumberland International Trucks of Nashville for a 2012 Sutphen 75-foot Pumper/Ladder with a Stainless Steel Rescue Style Body complete and delivered in the amount of $785,818.
According to Fire Chief Charlie Parker, the truck mentioned in the EVS-Midsouth bid was not only priced more reasonably, but also met all the city's bid specs.
"The price on this is not just for the ladder truck itself,” Parker said. “This is for all the equipment that goes on the truck, the air packs, the hose, the nozzles, everything to make it fully compliant and there's also a few extra pieces of equipment in there to make sure it works with our current fleet. There are some adapters, intakes, and other things to adapt the hose from the ladder truck to what we've got to make sure everything will match up to all three trucks. That equipment is in this price also," said Parker.
The winning bid put forth options for financing the purchase of the new truck from three to five years at interest rates of 2.45 percent or 2.55 percent.
Mayor Taft Hendrixson suggested, however, that the aldermen choose to make the required $250,000 down payment to EVS-Midsouth when the truck is ordered, and then simply remit the remainder of the purchase price when the truck is delivered.
Delivery is expected within 90 days.
The mayor told the council that in his opinion there was no need to pay interest on a purchase of this size when the city has the funds on hand.
“My suggestion is on paying for it,” Hendrixson told the aldermen. “If you do it on a three-year deal, it is going to cost you up to $28,000 interest.
“We've got the money to pay for it and I've never been one to pay interest if you've got the money,” the mayor continued. “My suggestion is to pay the $250,000 now, and when it's delivered, pay the rest of it," said Mayor Hendrixson.
It was decided that the funds would come out of the city's general fund reserve.
The down payment will be paid from this year’s city budget, and the remainder will be part of the 2012-13 budget, which begins July 1.
The purchase will use about 20 percent of the city’s general fund reserve.
Jacobs assured the public that the purchase will not put the city treasury in jeopardy.
"I want to assure everybody that we absolutely have no intention of running through the rest of that reserve in the near future unless there is some sort of catastrophe or something like that," Jacobs said.