The Columbus Fire Department is purchasing a new fire truck.
The Columbus Board of Works has approved a $740,848 contract with dealer Fire Service Inc. and manufacturer E-ONE for the new rescue pumper. Deputy Chief Mark Ziegler said that the new truck is for Station #4, and contractors estimate it will take 18 months to assemble the vehicle.
According to Chief Andy Lay, the department’s original capital request for the project was $700,000, but the sole bid came in at about $41,000 over this amount.
“We believe that was due to inflation and supply chain issues,” he said. “It takes a while for the capital request, and then a year or so to spec it out. And then now, we’ve got a couple of years before we take possession of that.”
Lay said he discussed the matter with city attorney Alan Whitted, and they saw “no advantage” to rejecting the bid and seeking additional responses. At present, officials plan to encumber the $700,000 into 2023 and then request additional capital funds to cover the remainder of the cost.
“We also did our due diligence with using all of the old equipment that we have from other fire trucks,” Lay added. “Sometimes, when we trade them off, we have old batteries and stuff. So we stripped this one down, pretty basic. It’s not even outfitted. It’s re-purposing older tools. … Otherwise, it would’ve probably came in at around $859,000 maybe, with all of the equipment on it.”
As a result of the purchase, an older fire truck — which he estimated to be 22 years old — will be put on reserve status.
