City will buy new truck (02/18/2009)

When the alarms go off in late April at the Portland Fire Station, a new truck will likely be rolling out the door.

A local board approved the purchase of a 2008 pumper truck for the fire department on Tuesday morning. Only one company submitted a bid for the truck.

The truck will be purchased from Towers Fire Apparatus, Freeburg, Ill., at a cost of $246,871. The red truck will replace another pumper truck that is about 20 years old.

The new truck will be financed through a four-year loan with Bank of Geneva and an annual percentage rate of 3.2 percent.

Five other banks - First Merchants, MainSource, Pacesetter, First Bank of Berne and Old National - also submitted quotes for loans. MainSource and Pacesetter banks submitted interest rates of 3.5 percent; First Merchants, 4.19 percent; First Bank of Berne, 4.2 percent; and Old National, 4.6 percent.

Delivery is expected to take about 60 days.

In other business today, board members voted to approve five new paid on-call volunteer firefighters. Chosen for the job were Chris Adams, Andrew Castillo, Chris Elmore, Dustine Hilfiker and Dennis Mason.

Portland's volunteer firefighters are paid on a per-run basis.[[In-content Ad]]