COLUMBIANA City council approves purchase of firetruck

By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
COLUMBIANA -- It was difficult to tell who was more pleased about the new firetruck, Fire Chief Charles Flohr, or Councilman Don Leonard.
The city council approved purchase of a new pumper at Tuesday's council meeting. The council has to give final approval at the June 10 meeting, then Flohr and his 24 firefighters will take delivery of the truck in about eight months.
Flohr and his firefighters are the ones who will use the truck. Leonard, however, took time at nearly every council meeting since his election three years ago to lobby for a new firetruck.
Leonard has been adamant about the purchase, and for a time, he even displayed a toy firetruck on the council table in front of him as a reminder.
At each of those meetings, Manager Keith Chamberlin, Mayor Lowell Schloneger or Finance Director Mary Louise Dicken told Leonard they had to ensure there was money in the budget to cover payments before taking out a loan.
The $300,000 pumper will be paid with funds the city has set aside each year, about $125,000, and with a loan.
Flohr said the truck will replace a 1971 pumper and give the volunteer department six vehicles in all. The 1971 pumper will be kept as a backup, he said.
Although the pumper has relatively low mileage, it needed replaced because replacements parts are expensive and difficult, if not impossible to find, he said.
State Route 14 construction
A $3 million project to extend water and sewer service along state Route 14 and portions of state Route 7 on the city's east side should begin in about a month.
City Manager Keith Chamberlin said the city will open bids for the project Friday, May 30, and construction should start three to four weeks after that.
Much of the work is "off the beaten path" Chamberlin said, so the pipeline work won't disrupt traffic along the busy Route 14 corridor very much.
Landowners will be assessed for the cost of the project, and Firestone Farms development represents about 75 percent of the property to be assessed, he said.
A golf course is already operating on the land and developer Wayne Bacon has also planned to build upscale housing in the area.