NLR aldermen approve purchase of 3 firetrucks

Three new fire engines will soon be heading to North Little Rock fire stations.

The North Little Rock City Council voted 8-0 in a special meeting Monday to waive formal bidding to buy three Pierce fire engines for $1.18 million, or $396,096 each. The decision, plus voting to add an emergency clause, took five minutes.

The money is already in the 2015 city budget, being part of a five-year plan by Mayor Joe Smith to replace 12 firefighting vehicles that average 13 years in age, with a few that undergo constant repairs.

The special meeting was necessary, Fire Chief Jim Murphy said, because the three firetrucks were available at a discounted price if the city acted now. The savings, Murphy said, would be $81,000, plus whatever the city would have spent on costly repairs on the current vehicles.

All three fire engines were completed in December at Pierce Manufacturing Inc. Ordering a fire engine to be built takes about eight months, said a memo from Murphy given to aldermen.

The purchase transaction was made soon after the meeting and the fire engines are estimated to be delivered March 1, city spokesman Nathan Hamilton said Monday afternoon.

Murphy told aldermen that he would need to look at current truck conditions, fire call volume and other factors before knowing to which of the city’s 10 fire stations the new engines would be assigned.

The vehicles being bought were bid through HGACBuy, a nationwide, government procurement service, Smith said, but city attorneys “felt more comfortable,” he added, if the City Council would vote to waive formal bidding for the purchase.

“There were four [fire engines] available and one has already sold,” Smith said. “We thought we should hurry. We need these trucks now.”