NORTH AUGUSTA -- North Augusta City Council finalized its authorization of $5.5 million worth of firetruck contracts on May 19, setting in motion a waiting game of about three to five years and the interim receipt of a neighboring volunteer department's own apparatus.
The council last week indicated it was going to move forward on the contracts, essentially already authorized by Aiken County voters last fall when they approved the next cycle of the countywide penny sales tax, of which that $5.5 million for apparatus in North Augusta was a small part.
The long lead-time on the new trucks - two ladder trucks and a pumper - is reason for the interim vehicle sourced from the Graniteville-Vaucluse-Warrenville volunteer department and with the good appraisal from NADPS Chief Junior Johnson that it's a "a good truck" in spite of its 25 years: A GVW lieutenant who has volunteered with North Augusta was the truck's primary driver and had no problem with it, he said.
So, no purchasing "someone else's problem," in having it for a couple years, Johnson said last week. And still newer that the 1981 model the agency currently has.
It's a bridging plan while the city waits a few years for the new truck.
Already a slow process to get a firetruck, the exact timeframe dependent on what specifications are ordered for it, there's now also backlog of orders for them nationwide, North Augusta City Administrator Jim Clifford surmising that many local jurisdictions did what North Augusta also did: put some of their pandemic relief money toward replacing old equipment.
In the bundle authorized Monday are a 107-foot ladder truck for $1.95 million to replace that '81 model at Fire Station No. 1; a 100-foot ladder truck just under $2.2 million to replace a 2008 truck now housed at Station No. 3; and a $1.33 million pumper to replace the 2005 model at Station No. 2.
Johnson said the 107-foot ladder was designed with a shorter axel and smaller wheelbase, ideal for getting "in and around" the tighter spaces as in the Exit 1 apartment developments and Hammonds Ferry, which it will primarily serve along with the Knox Avenue commercial corridor.
Another $145,000, this not from the sales tax but from the city's regular Capital Projects fund, will bring that used aerial over from GVW to North Augusta.
The city will have the option of saving about $110,000 if it makes an early payment in 2027, the anticipated year for North Augusta's first disbursement from the sales tax.
That would add a bit more to the pot for getting a service truck later on, though Johnson said the service truck would likely be more than covered by another $470,000 already reserved in the sales tax allotments for it.
City Administrator Jim Clifford said this week it was too early to make the call on whether to pre-pay in 2027 or to pay when the rig pulls up, truck in hand.
"Mostly because we still have to go through some additional Capital Project Sales Tax planning and lay out a better capital plan for the council on what the impacts are - is it worth saving $100,000 or $200,000 and meet that within the overall spending timeframe that we have?" he said. "The council will have a future decision point" about that.