Darlington City Council approves purchase of new fire truck
Ray Early receives a key to the city from Mayor Gloria Hines in recognition for his work in the Canadian Football League.
Photos by Melissa Rollins
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
During the Darlington City Council meeting Tuesday January 3, council voted to approve a request from Fire Department Chief Pat Cavanaugh to purchase a new fire truck.
Cavanaugh laid his case out before council, explaining the need for new equipment.
“When I took over three or four years ago, we talked about some of my needs back at the fire station,” Cavanaugh said. “Right now I’ve got two thirty year old fire trucks, over thirty year old fire trucks, that I’ve got to go about trying to get repaired.”
He said that the issue he runs into as his equipment ages is high repair bills, if repairs can be made at all.
Councilwoman Carolyn Bruce tours the new fire truck.
“After so many years, with a fire apparatus, when you try to get parts things get kind of very hard,” Cavanaugh said. “The 1984 vehicle, we needed a windshield that got cracked. They searched high and low. One of the companies, a glass company out of Hartsville, finally found one windshield in Florida. When they got the windshield in here, as they were putting it in, it cracked. So, right now, we cannot find a windshield for it. In the ’86 model, last year we had a problem with the diesel injector pump; that was when I had the large increase in some of my bills.”
Looking to save money, Cavanaugh had been searching for used vehicles but found that that was not necessarily the best option.
“We were looking for different deals to come along and replace these two used fire trucks,” Cavanaugh said. “I came across a deal with the people that finance our truck that we have currently through the same company, H.M.E. First Class Fire Apparatus. We are able to find a way to take these two trucks that we have offline and purchase one brand new truck.”
Replacing two trucks with one will not be an issue when it comes to response he said because they are over the necessary capacity for vehicles currently anyway.
“Why would we want to take two trucks offline,” Cavanaugh asked. “Well the first reason is, when the ISO came in they told us we had one too many vehicles than what we actually need and we weren’t getting credit for it.”
Cavanaugh said that through First Class Fire Apparatus he was able to find a 2016 fire truck for around three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
“Right now we still have five more payments on our current First Class Vehicle at thirty-seven thousand dollars,” Cavanaugh said. “The good thing is, we can take the amount we owe on this fire truck and roll it into the cost of the new fire truck because the discount is so much. With insurance, we’ll save roughly forty thousand over the next five years.”
The new truck will have increased insurance costs but Cavanaugh said he is hopeful that the sale of the old vehicles, along with some other things he has planned, will mitigate that increase.
Councilman Bryant Gardner made a motion to approve the purchase; councilwoman Elaine Reed seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. After the meeting, council members were able to see the new truck, which was parked for the night at the fire station.
During the meeting, Darlington Native Ray Early was given a key to the city by Mayor Gloria Hines.
“Ray Early, a graduate of Darlington High School, a graduate of Furman University, is now a Grey Cup Champion of the Canadian Football League,” Hines read from a statement. “Ray was a three-year starter for the Darlington Falcons where he won multiple all-conference awards for place kicking and punting…Ray Early finished out the (2016) season with the (Ottawa) Redblacks and led them to their first ever Grey Cup victory.”
In other business, Jannie Lathan updated council on the work the city is doing to recoup the costs associated with Hurricane Matthew.
“We have actually submitted the PWS, the Project Work Sheet, for Category A for the time period October 4 – November 2,” Lathan said. “Category A deals solely with debris removal for that period. We have been able to account for $9,710 in labor; $16,088 in equipment; $4,754 in administrative costs; $42,923 in contracts. That’s the most significant number there and that was primarily for debris removal.”
The contract costs included hiring crews to clear roadways in the first 72 hours to make it safer for the public, Lathan said. The total cost submitted was $77,913.29.
“This has been submitted and we are waiting for review and approval. These are all conditional and subject to FEMA approval. We have a very thorough and detailed submission, so our anticipation is that the city can be reimbursed most of that money.”
City Manager Howard Garland said that this is not the first time the city has gone through this process and every effort will be made to get the money back.
“It doesn’t matter what they tell us or how many times they tell us no; we’re going to keep submitting just like we did last year. We submitted five different times last year; we’ve given three different sets of information to them so far this year. We will not take no for an answer.”
