Both Bulloch County and the city of Statesboro are equipping their fire departments with new or "new to us" trucks with a 100-foot reach.
The Statesboro Fire Department's order, totaling a little over $3.67 million, for both a new Sutphen 75-foot ladder truck and new Sutphen 100-foot aerial platform truck, was approved Tuesday evening by Statesboro City Council. Tuesday morning, the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners approved two orders for equipment at prices totaling a rounded $242,948, to outfit a used 100-foot ladder truck recently purchased for the Bulloch County Fire Department.
By obtaining a "new to us," but used, ladder truck, the county Fire Department will be able to put it into use sooner, BCFD Training Chief Mitchell Sikes said after Tuesday's meeting. The county had budgeted $1 million for buying and equipping the truck, and the truck itself cost about $600,000.
"It's not a new truck, and obviously it takes a lot of equipment," Sikes said. "It's kind of specialized apparatus, but with all the industrial that we currently have and what we have coming in, this will be a key component to provide adequate response to the industrial area as well as residences."
The wait time to receive a new ladder truck, built to order, typically extends from two to four years, "so to kind of cut down on that build time, we were able to purchase this one. It was really quick delivery," he said.
Although the used truck has been delivered, the new equipment is just now being ordered, and county officials hope the truck will be outfitted for use by early 2025. BCFD officers also hope a new ladder truck will eventually be funded, for delivery within a few years.
The equipment purchases for outfitting the truck – $215,186.72 to Municipal Emergency Services and $27,761 to NAFECO for fire hose, nozzles, hand tools and rescue equipment –were two of several "consent agenda" items the commissioners unanimously approved on a single motion, and were not discussed.
New battalion chiefs
Sikes attended the meeting to introduce the Bulloch County Fire Department's three recently hired shift battalion chiefs, Benjamin Allen, Jason Gammon and Marq Roberts, to the commissioners and public.
Allen, recently assistant chief with the Vidalia Fire Department, brings 24 years experience in fire service. Gammon, who has been with Bulloch County for a couple of years, now has 16 years experience. Roberts, recently with the Douglas Fire Department, has over 21 years of experience. Shift battalion chief is a newly added supervisory position as the BCFD, a mixed career and volunteer department, increases its number of career firefighters and staffs three 24-hour, seven-day stations.
SFD orders 2 tall trucks
Meanwhile, the all career-firefighter Statesboro Fire Department is looking toward adding a third station within Statesboro while also maintaining contracted service for the county in a five-mile radius of the SFD's two existing stations. The two trucks the department is ordering through a Sourcewell cooperative purchasing contract from Williams Fire and Equipment were described as a 100-foot "aerial platform apparatus," which will replace a 1996 E-One ladder truck, and a 75-foot "aerial apparatus," or ladder truck, which will replace a 2013 Pierce fire engine.
The city government will classify the E-One truck as surplus, and the Pierce will be placed in reserve.
Sutphen is the manufacturer of both of the newly ordered trucks. The 75-foot ladder truck will actually be a "quint" combination truck with fire engine water-pumping capabilities as well as the reach of the telescoping ladder, said Statesboro Fire Chief Tim Grams.
"With just the amount of multi-story development, townhomes, apartments, things of that nature, we felt like there was a need for an additional aerial apparatus," he said on Monday. "So that piece of apparatus will actually be stationed at Station 3 once it's constructed, because on that side of town, which is over there around Brannen Street, there's quite a few proposed (housing) developments, and of course we've got all the commercial over there as well."
The 100-foot platform truck will be very similar to the Tower 1 truck the SFD has now, with a bucket-type platform on a telescoping tower.
"The reason we're needing to purchase that is that our reserve apparatus, Ladder 2, which is a 1996 E-One, has had catastrophic engine failure, so as it stands right now, we only have one aerial in the fleet," Grams said. "So the current tower or platform we have now will be reserve."
This is in line with National Fire Protection Association standards, which call for aerial apparatus to serve about 15 years in front-line fire service and potentially last 15 more years in reserve, he said.
But neither of the SFD's newly ordered trucks will be available immediately.
Sutphen has informed the department that a 100-foot platform truck is now being built and "will be ready for delivery in early 2025, earlier than the typical 22-34 month build time," according to a memo Grams signed off on to City Manager Charles Penny and the council.
The 75-foot ladder truck still has an estimated build time of 24 to 26 months, but "by paying in full, the department will receive a discount of $122,537.25," Grams stated in the memo. After that discount, the combined price tag is $3,674,819.32.
Budgeted separately from revenue shares received by the city and county, Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds are being used to pay for the city trucks as well as the county equipment. The SPLOST is one of four 1 percent local optional sales taxes collected in Bulloch County, while the state of Georgia also collects a 4 percent sales tax.