East Franklin Firefighters Purchasing New Pumper
East Franklin Township Fire Chief Mark Feeney announced to township supervisors that firefighters are finalizing plans today for a new, $307,000 pumper truck.
by Jonathan Weaver
East Franklin Township supervisors learned about and signed off on two new vehicle purchases at last night’s monthly supervisors meeting.
Township Fire Chief Mark Feeney announced the first purchase order.
“We’re buying a new truck,” Chief Feeney said. “We’re buying a new pumper truck from Rosenbauer – it’s going to look just like the pumper truck we have now.”
The Freightliner truck will be built in South Dakota and serviced in Ebensburg (Cambria County).
Final plans will be reviewed later today with the Ebensburg representative before fire department officials sign the paperwork to complete the purchase
Chief Feeney said officials are just awaiting word on a $45,000 bank loan, even if it isn’t essential to the purchase. Money has been set aside annually for the new pumper truck.
“We have all the money to buy the truck. The price right now is $307,000, and if we pay for the truck in total on the sign-off, we get $8,000 off,” Chief Feeney said. “The reason we’re not paying for it totally without a bank loan is you can’t operate without money – if we took everything out for the truck, we’d only have about $8,000 for operating expense.”
Once the township’s annual allocation, donations and gun drawing revenue is added in, fire department officials plan to make double payments on the loan.
Feeney said the new pumper truck with a 1,250-gallon tank has been part of the fire department’s 10-year plan, and will be ‘basic,’ without much computerized equipment
“I want my guys to know how to run a truck – not push a button and hope for the best,” Chief Feeney said. “It’s a nice vehicle, but it’s not a parade truck – it’s a working fire truck.”
Plans to consolidate with Applewold Volunteer Fire Department are still progressing, with Feeney saying in January that he hopes the merger will be complete this fall.
Fire officials hope to receive the truck in about a year.
The old truck will be refurbished for about $18,000, and stay in the municipality’s fleet.
Locally, at least Kittanning Hose Company #4 and Manor Township also has Rosenbauer fire apparatus in its fleets.
Supervisors also unanimously agreed to purchase a 2015 Ford F550 dump truck.
The total-equipped cost will total about $80,000 and be purchased through the state COSTARS cooperative purchasing program.
Last year’s public works budget included nearly $89,500 for major equipment purchases
Supervisor David Stewart motioned for the vehicle purchase, with Vice-Chair Dan Goldinger as second.
“When that truck comes in, we’ll be getting rid of our older dump truck,” Goldinger said. “Those small dump (trucks), we really use them a lot”
Stewart agreed that the smaller vehicle was also efficient, especially during the summer months.
In November, supervisors received a single bid for the 2001 GMC C8500 single-axle dump truck. The $12,000 bid from Toy’s Landscaping was $2,000 more than the minimum amount expected.
Local News | jweaver May 1, 2015
