City Council buys firetruck

The Bella Vista City Council unanimously approved financing for and the purchase of a new Pierce Class A custom pumper firetruck, to be placed at Station 3, during its regular meeting Monday.

The council passed an ordinance, with an emergency clause, to take a five-year loan through Regions Bank with a proposed 2.09 pecent interest rate to cover the $464,346 truck.

Council member John Flynn said the city would save money by purchasing the truck with cash up front.

According to documentation sent by Pierce Manufacturing, the truck will be built once the order is placed and the fire department will have its truck within one year. The truck’s normal price, according to the document, is $483,574, but Pierce is offering a prepay discount of $22,129, along with a payment bond at an additional cost of $2,901, bringing the truck’s final cost to $464,346.

That bond, staff attorney Jason

Kelley said, was provided by the company as part of the purchase. During the previous week’s work session, he said this bond provides the city with protection if the truck is never delivered.

Additionally, he said at the work session, loan payments will need to begin immediately, though the city will not have its truck right away.

Council member Doug Fowler said he met with firefighters at Station 3, off Glasgow Road, where this truck would be placed.

“The truck that’s operating out of Station 3 right now, it’s a 2005 model and it’s currently owned by the county,” he said.

The city, he said, has the truck on loan, under the condition that it handles all maintenance and pays for insurance on it. Because the city does not own this truck, he said, the county can take it back at any time and leave the fire department short a truck.

The truck has cost the city roughly $30,000 so far in maintenance this year, he said, and it’s likely to continue costing money.

While there is a reserve truck, he said, it’s even older.

Additionally, he said, firefighters would benefit from a more capable truck. In the morethan-a-decade since this truck was made, he said, firetrucks have improved substantially.

The current truck, he said, has difficulty climbing hills.

“It doesn’t really have the power that it needs to have,” he said. “It’s just time to replace it.”

The council also approved the purchase of new protective gear for firefighters, allowing the library to spend donation funds, accepting grant money for police uniforms and appointing the first batch of commissioners to the city’s newly-formed Advertising and Promotion Commission.

“It doesn’t really have the power that it needs to have. It’s just time to replace it.” Doug Fowler Council member