By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE ó The town will get a new firetruck, a mid-sized vehicle designed to respond to vehicle accidents and first response calls.
The Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday night to buy the truck from Freedom Fire Equipment Inc. of Marietta, Ga., for $179,568.
Fire Chief Jeff Gledhill said Freedom was one of two bidders. The other bidder, Fire Connections Inc., submitted a price of $214,913.
Mayor Don Bringle questioned why the town only got two bids. In the current economic climate, he said, he would have expected more interest from companies manufacturing fire equipment.
Gledhill said the truck specifications were specialized, which apparently eliminated some bidders.
The truck will have a foam suppression system capable of generating 1,500 gallons of foam.
Delivery is expected in six to seven months.
A memo from Town Manager Bill Pless noted the town initially though it had only one bid, but a second bid was discovered prior to the opening.
The town has the money to buy the truck. Former Town Manager Eric Davis created a truck reserve fund with the town setting aside $30,000 a year.
Gledhill estimated the truck will need about $7,000 worth of additional equipment to put it in service.
Early last year, town officials thought they might get two vehicles, the mid-size truck and an ambulance. But the truck price ran more than expected.
Aldermen briefly discussed continuing the $30,000 allocation to the fund next year, building the fund to buy an ambulance.
In another matter, the board declared three Ford Crown Victoria cars used by the police department as surplus. The vehicles, all with high mileage, will be sold on the Web site GovDeals.com.
Other equipment declared as surplus includes light bars, prisoner partitions, consoles, speakers, a mobile camera system and other police items.
Police Chief Hodge Coffield said the cars are in fair condition. Coffield said a police officer stripped the police package specialized equipment from the cars.