Delayed decision to cost $7,000

UPPER POTTSGROVE » With a 3-2 vote, the township commissioners balked at spending more than $300,000 on a new fire truck Jan. 16, thus ensuring it will cost $7,000 more if it is purchased eventually.

Township Commissioner Martin Schreiber, a member of both the Upper Pottsgrove Fire Company and the fire committee of the board of commissioners, said the new truck would replace a 1983 pumper purchased from the North End Fire Company in Pottstown and now so old that replacement parts are nearly impossible to find.

In fact, he said, last time the truck’s brakes needed to be replaced, looking for parts involved a nationwide search that took the truck out of commission for three months.

The new truck, is smaller, more versatile and fits on a standard Ford pickup chassis so no commercial driver’s license is required to drive it.

Fire Chief Thomas Mattingly said a demonstration of the truck and its abilities — which includes a kind of foam that dramatically increases the effectiveness of the water sprayed from its hoses — was conducted last year.

He said the full purchase

price is $331,175, a price that was guaranteed for 30 days last month, but that with the new year, the price of the truck will increase by $7,000 unless the commissioners approved the purchase immediately.

Township Commissioner Elwood Taylor said he witnessed the demonstration and was very impressed, had been aware of the discussions and the financial arrangements, all of which is why he voted in support of the purchase.

Discussion on the fire committee about the truck has been going on since last May, said Mattingly.

“It’s unfortunate that the change in terms means you are hearing about this for the first time,” said Taylor. “If it were me, I would feel strange about voting to spend $300,000 at my first meeting too.”

He was referring to the fact that as a result of the November elections, the board has two new members, Trace Slinkerd and Renee Spaide, both of whom were at their first full meeting of their new terms and both of whom voted against the purchase, citing the need for more background information.

“If $7,000 is the cost of doing your due diligence, I can understand that,” Taylor said in reference to the higher price of the truck in 2018.

“I’m not going to make decision just because its on sale. I’m not prepared to vote on this tonight,” said Slinkerd, who said he wants more information on the financials of the purchase and the operational justification for the purchase.

He asked Mattingly if the fire company could protect the town with just its two other trucks.

Mattingly said Upper Pottsgrove is growing and he believes the third truck is necessary.

He said payments on a truck the fire company purchased from the Norco Fire Company expire this coming December, before payments on the new truck would begin.

Money has also been set aside for the down payment over the last few years, and so no tax hike or increase in spending would be necessary to fund the purchase, said Mattingly, who added that the purchase of the new truck is included in the 2018 township budget, which cut taxes by 7 percent.

The third no vote came from Commissioner France Krazalcovich who is not opposed to the purchase, but who wants the township to apply for a federal grant to cover part of the cost of the new truck, a grant that would require a 15 percent match.

The problem with that course of action is the amount of time it will take, and the likelihood that the grant will be awarded to Upper Pottsgrove at all.

Township Manager Carol Lewis said the application is due in February, but the township will likely not find out whether it received the grant until autumn.

And, given that the township has applied through this grant program three times before and never received any money, the likelihood it will happen this time is low, said Mattingly.

Further, once the truck is ordered, it will take nearly a year before it can be delivered.

As a result, delaying the purchase — and the 3-2 vote to apply for the federal grant — means the price of the truck will go up, and it could take two more years before its in service.

Whether the current truck will last that long remains an open question.

“How many people drive a 35-year-old car and expect it to perform perfectly every time?” Mattingly asked.

Schreiber asked what the point of the fire committee is, if the commissioners are going to reject its recommendation?

This sparked a sharp response from Karzalkovich, who said “I absolutely reject the idea that the commissioners are just a rubber stamp for the fire committee.”