Youngstown council mulls payments on firefighter equipment

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

How strapped for cash is Youngstown?

It depends.

City council will consider legislation Wednesday to defer all but 10 percent of the $24,493.01 cost of buying 10 refurbished firefighter air packs.

The ordinance calls for the rest of the cost to be paid annually beginning in mid-2011 in four equal payments of $6,346.73 at an interest rate of 5.022 percent.

The city would pay $3,393.21 more for the air packs — used to allow firefighters to breathe air when attempting to extinguish a fire — over the four-year period rather than all at once.

The fire chief “explained that it’s a good deal,” said Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st, who as chairwoman of council’s safety committee is one of the three sponsors of the legislation. “He explained it to me, but I can’t remember what he said. He felt it was a good way to do it.”

The payment plan will be discussed Wednesday at a finance committee meeting with a special council meeting to follow.

Councilman Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd, chairman of the finance committee, said he doesn’t know why the city is spreading out the payments of the equipment, but he’ll find out on Wednesday.

Buying the air packs, to replace 10 that haven’t worked since April, is needed, but the money to pay for them is not in the fire department budget, said Fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr.

“If we’re in better financial shape next year, we’ll pay it off” and save some interest fees, he said. “If not, we’ll wait till the following year. I couldn’t find any money. We’re trying to get through the rest of the year. If I have to pay six-months interest, that’s OK. It’s a short-term fix.”

Mayor Jay Williams said he’ll talk to O’Neill about the purchase to determine if it’s more “efficient and effective” to pay the entire bill at once.

The city is working to fill a $2.5 million hole in its budget.

Even in tough financial times, the city’s board of control, at its last meeting, July 8, approved a variety of items including up to $10,376.56 for signs on the city hall annex, $8,468.70 to modify and upgrade a telephone system, up to $10,000 for eight police cruiser mounted radios, and $44,489 for a vehicle for the public works department.

At Wednesday’s meeting, council will also consider legislation to spend $4,850 to buy 388 anti-theft “door clubs” from Winner International of Sharon, Pa., for $12.50 each, to be distributed at no cost to senior citizens.

“We’ve had a number of break-ins so this is a good idea,” Brown said. “It’s another tool for fighting crime. It’s a home security device.”