Board adds firefighters

Portland Fire Department is now fully staffed.

The city’s board of works approved the hiring of five part-time firefighters at its meeting Thursday after they passed written and physical tests.

Tyler Aker, Brayden Fields, Jessica Ooten, Mitchell Rigby and Sheldon Upp are the first part-time firefighters hired in two and a half years, said Portland Fire Chief Mike Weitzel.

Board members Steve McIntosh, Jerry Leonhard and John Boggs also tabled a potential interlocal agreement with Jay County to use county equipment for a new districtwide training facility for local fire departments.

Weitzel, who has been planning the project for months, requested discussion of the agreement be tabled because bulldozers were donated for the project, therefore county equipment was no longer needed.

At the meeting, which lasted about seven minutes, the only other action the board took was approving the purchase of a new truck for the Portland Street Department.

The vehicle will be purchased from Dunkirk’s Fuqua Chrysler, which had the lowest quote for a 2020 Dodge truck with four-wheel drive and a six cylinder engine for $23,307 after trade in. Fuqua offered $2,000 for a 2006 Ford the department is looking to give up.

Of the four dealers who filed bids on the truck, Fuqua and Greg Hubler Ford in Muncie were the only ones to attach trade-in values for the Ford, which was requested on all bids.

McIntosh said it’s essentially a deal breaker if a trade-in value is requested but isn’t included in a bid.

Dealers also failed to include trade-in values when Portland wastewater superintendent Brad Clayton requested bids for two Ford F-250 trucks last month.