Pickup truck, lawn mower purchase approved

— City council members, on Monday, approved the purchase of a new pickup truck and a slightly-used riding lawn mower and leaf vacuum for the fire department.

The pickup truck, a four-door Dodge, is being purchased under state bid at a price of $22,885. The fire department anticipates the cost to outfit the pickup for use - including lightingand a camper shell - to bring the grand total to approximately $25,000.

In the department's rotation of trucks to maximize service life of vehicles, the fire chief would use the new pickup truck and the truck he currently drives would be rotated into service as a first responder truck.

The lawn mower being considered had only 130 hours of use and was half the price of a new mower. The leaf vacuum system to be used with the mower wasonly about a third the cost of new. Total cost for the mower and leaf vacuum was estimated at about $3,000.

With additional staffing at the fire department, firemen will be assisting with mowing duties at the fire stations and at some city buildings to help keep down costs of paying an outside provider for the services.

The money for the purchases is money left over from the SWEPCO gift of $185,000 to the fire department - approximately$37,000. The gift money was first used to pay off the city debt on the fire department expansion.

Also recommended by the fire committee for purchase was an LED sign to replace the current sign in front of the fire station. The sign, with rotating messages, would be used to promote fire safety and community events. The cost was being researched but estimated at approximately $12,000 to $15,000.

Mayor Kevin Johnstonsuggested more research needed to be done before a decision was made on purchasing a sign.

The original motion was to include the LED sign in the purchases, but councilman Warren Norman asked that the sign be taken out of the motion until more research could be done on the cost.

“I’d like to leave the LED sign out of the resolution,” Norman said. “That’s a lot of money for a sign.”

Business owner and former mayor Wes Hogue expressed his concern over spending that amount of money on an LED sign when the city could build and sustain a website for many years for the same money.

The original motion by councilwoman Janice Arnold and the second by Janie Parks was rescinded. A new motion by Arnold, without the sign, was passed unanimously by the council (except that James Furgason was not present).

News, Pages 5 on 03/07/2012