Photo by Howard Owens
As Batavia’s city fire department prepares to welcome a shiny new, customized fire truck into a bay at the renovated Evans Street site, City Council dealt with details of the $800,000 purchase Monday evening at City Hall.
Council voted on three resolutions:
- Approve the purchase of the fire truck project completion;
- Authorize and provide for the “incurrence of indebtedness” for the purpose of providing a portion of the cost of acquiring, constructing, enlarging, improving and or extending its new fire truck facility to serve an area lawfully within its jurisdiction to serve; and
- Authorize a general bond to finance the acquisition.
The city will pay for Engine 12 with a $665,000 loan at 2.5 percent interest for 20 years, a $100,000 grant and city fire reserves of $36,681.
Councilman-at-large Bob Bialkowski wanted to know more about the second resolution regarding the incurrence of indebtedness for the purpose of acquiring, constructing and enlarging the truck’s new facility in Batavia. Does that mean there will be more work done at the first station, which has recently been updated with a new driveway apron and other interior upgrades?
There’s no extension of the building, City Attorney George Van Nest said.
“This is draft language from USDA. This is a standard USDA resolution that they require; it’s part of the closing package,” Van Nest said. “The entire statement says resolution of the City Council of the City of Batavia authorizing and providing for the incurrence of indebtedness for the purpose of providing a portion of the cost of acquiring construction, enlarging, improving and/or extending its fire trucks. So, in that case, cross everything out except for acquiring fire trucks, and we're good to go.”
Engine 12 will put Engine 11 into reserve, and the current reserve will go to surplus, Fire Chief Joshua Graham said.
“They’re out there right now to do the final inspection, which they’ve been doing all day and tomorrow at the factory,” he said. “Once they finish the inspection, we’re estimating it to be shipped to Colden Enterprises in Kenmore sometime around the first of November, and they’ll have it outfitted with tools and accessories. And then sometime in mid-November, it’ll be delivered to us, and the only thing we’ll have to do with it is the detailing.”
City Manager Rachael Tabelski, who reviewed the financial plan, said that she appreciated the interest rate the city was able to get as part of the deal.
“I'm just very glad we were able to get a 2.5 percent interest rate because we do have almost enough in reserves to pay this off. But at this point, the funding and reserves is making more interest being there than what we pay out,” Tabelski said. “And with the help of (City Clerk/Treasurer) Heidi, who does a really nice job with all of our investments, looks at each of these opportunities, and we're actually able to make a little bit more on our investments in our reserve funds.”
Council members, all of whom had previously voted for the purchase of the fire truck, approved the resolutions.
“I hope it lasts us many, many years,” Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said.
After the meeting, Graham said that the current reserve engine dates back to 2002, and its age means “it’s starting to have a lot of maintenance issues.”
“So moving the current first-run engine back to reserve, and then implementing this new version first,” was his primary reason for necessitating a new truck purchase, he said. “The truck itself is completely built in the factory, and the crews are out there now going over it with a fine toothcomb. The only thing they're doing when it comes up here is that it doesn't come with the mounts for our tools and things to put the tools on it. So they install those on the truck up here. Then it'll come over to us, and then the city actually makes the decals.”
He plans to take the new pumper on a little cruise through the city to show the citizens the new vehicle, most likely sometime in mid- to late November.
