It’s going to be a while, but Gulfport is getting a new fire truck.
The City Council voted at its Sept. 6 meeting to approve the $835,160 purchase using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) coronavirus recovery funds. But as City Manager Jim O’Reilly pointed out during the discussion, the current lead time on this kind of equipment is 18 months. So the City will get a 2024 truck that likely will not arrive before late 2023 at the earliest.
According to officials, the Gulfport Fire Department’s current Engine 17, a 2012 model, has recently cracked the 100,000-mile mark. Maintenance and upkeep has increased over the years due to its age and the number of calls it runs daily, officials said.
At present, the backup fire truck is a 2004 with 117,000 miles and plenty of repairs under its belt. It get sold as surplus when the new truck arrives – at auction on E-Gov according to O’Reilly – and the 2012 model will then become the backup.
The purchase price stated for the new Engine 17 includes all the updated equipment, added options, as well as the installation of all the equipment.
The City has now used $4,876,638 of the $6,181,536 in ARPA funds allocated by the federal government. That means $1,304,898 remains for approved expenditures.
The very next action on the City Council agenda was a vindication of sorts for the previous decision, as a $28,097 payment for emergency repairs to Engine 17 was approved. The vehicle recently required a complete engine overhaul, and as the bill was above $20,000 it required council approval.
“It’s pretty self-explanatory,” said O’Reilly. “This is why we are buying a new truck.”
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Filed Under: Gulfport City Council, News Tagged With: ARPA Gulfport, Gulfport city council, Gulfport fire truck
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