Patti Dozier
THOMASVILLE — Members of two Thomas County Commission committees voted 3-2 early Friday morning to recommend the purchase of a $500,000 aerial fire truck to the full board Monday night.
Commissioners Moses Gross, Louis Rehberg and Elaine Mays voted in favor of the recommendation, following a motion by Gross and a second by Rehberg.
Commissioners Ken Hickey and Mary Jo Beverly cast nay votes at the 8 a.m. meeting at commission offices on North Crawford Street.
At a 6 p.m. Monday meeting in the second-floor courtroom at the Thomas County Courthouse, commissioners will vote on whether to accept a bid of $499,201 from the Holden, La.-based Ferrarra Fire Apparatus Inc. for a 2008 HME to be delivered in a maximum of 90 days.
Other bids were:
• Fire Fighting Innovations Inc., Callahan, Fla. — $476,887 for a 2008 Sparta, 270 maximum delivery days, and;
• Pierce Manufacturing, Appleton, Wisc. — $589,464 for a 2008 Pierce, 75 maximum delivery days.
“We need a good, old Chevrolet. We don’t need a Cadillac,” Commissioner Claud Davis said.
Purchasing and emergency services committees met Friday. Davis attended the meeting, although he is not a member of either panel and did not vote.
Commissioners questioned where repairs would be made on a new truck.
“Unless it’s something catastrophic, it should not have to go anywhere for repairs,” Chris Jones, county fire chief, told commissioners.
About 99 percent of the problems with new fire trucks are electrical and can be repaired on-site, the chief added.
Rehberg said a need for the truck exists, and money is available to purchase the vehicle without touching tax revenue.
“It would all be taken care of with impact fee money,” Rehberg explained, adding that the county fire department will have to replace 10 fire trucks during the next two decades.
“This is a basic pumper that has a ladder on it,” Rehberg said. The truck can battle blazes from overhead and save firefighters’ lives, he added.
Davis questioned why a fire truck should be purchased now. Did not the county fire consultant recommend waiting until an ISO (Insurance Services Office) report is received in the fall? Beverly asked.
ISO also recommended waiting, Davis interjected.
Mays, who participated in the meeting via a conference call from Florida, said she does not trust Thomasville Fire/Rescue to respond with a ladder truck to fires in unincorporated areas.
“This is not about the city,” Rehberg responded. He added that he thinks a city ladder truck would respond, and city firefighters would help fight a county blaze.
Hickey said he thinks Bryan Croft, the city fire chief, has the community’s best interest at heart.
“If they are so interested in the county, why no automatic-aid agreement?” Mays asked.
Gross, commission vice chairman, told commissioners the city agency said it would not respond when county officials began talking about expanding the county fire department and ending a long-time city-county fire protection contract.
People expect service and it is commissioners’ responsibility to provide it, Gross told fellow commissioners.
Hickey, who presided at the Friday meeting, said he supports the county fire department, but he is considering money.
Some $1,615 is paid in impact fees on each new residence built in unincorporated Thomas County. Of that amount, $770.48 is earmarked for fire protection.
On Friday, $90,325.71 had been set aside from impact fees for fire protection.
Rehberg said it is estimated $150,000 in fire-related impact fees will be available at the end of the year, resulting in financing a new fire truck for three years instead of 10.
Noting the status of the U.S. economy, Hickey said construction might “shut down.”
Commission Chairman Josh Herring, contacted by phone on the West Coast Friday, said, “I’m against it. I’ve let everyone know.”
Herring said he had brought to the commission’s attention that ISO suggested postponing the ladder truck purchase, because it might not be needed.
“I’m very much against it,” Herring explained.
Meanwhile at the Friday meeting, Jones recommended the Ferrarra bid.
“I think we’ve got the fire protection now,” Davis told commissioners. “We just don’t like the way it’s done.”
Davis wants to wait until ISO evaluation results are known before acting on a ladder truck. He said he would vote for the vehicle if ISO says it would improve Thomas County’s standing.
“Our purchase orders prove we are buying the items,” Jones told commissioners.
After the motion and second and prior to the vote, Beverly said she could not recall the commission opening bids before the matter went before the commission. Hickey said that process applies to budgeted items.
Rehberg said he hoped the vote would be “close to unanimous” to make a good impression.
“Impression on who?” Beverly asked.
