Trenton Fire Chief Rick Morris and Lt. Mike Moore will be headed to New York next week to look at a fire truck that the city is interested in purchasing.
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During a meeting of the city council on Tuesday, members gave Morris and Moore authorization to make the trip to a small town in north New York, where the fire truck is located. The rescue/pumper would replace a fire truck currently out of commission and, according to Morris, can be purchased for about one-half the cost of a new vehicle.
The 2000 fire truck has just 1,300 hours of service on the engine and 13,000 miles, which Morris compared to a car that has just 2,000 miles on it. The truck is being offered to the city at a cost of $170,000, which is less than half of what a new truck would cost. If Morris looks at the truck and decides it meets the fire department’s needs, the council agreed to have City Administrator Kerry Sampson make a wire transfer of 10 percent of the cost to secure the vehicle, which will be delivered to Trenton by the community that is selling it. It will then be up to the council to determine how best to finance the purchase.
City Administrator Kerry Sampson said he has been in touch with local financial institutions as well as the Missouri Association of Public Utilities concerning possible financing options. While formal bids have not been sought, Sampson said at least one local bank has offered the city a rate of 2.86 percent. Sampson said the city could also look at paying for the truck outright from the fund balances, however, he said he was not in favor of that because of the uncertainty of what monies might be needed to cover costs incurred with inclement weather during the winter months.
Morris and Moore are scheduled to go to New York early on Nov. 30 and will spend the day inspecting the truck. The firemen will return the next day.