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Youngstown council votes to purchase two used firetrucks
YOUNGSTOWN
City council voted to have the board of control spend up to $365,000 for two used firetrucks, but it will be a month or two before city officials can determine how they’ll pay for them.
The legislation council approved Wednesday is for “the emergency purchase” of the two pumper trucks.
The pumper trucks – one is 6 years old and the other is 9 years old – would replace a pair of trucks from 1987 that are used as backups, said fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr. One of the 29-year-old trucks doesn’t work, he said.
If the trucks are purchased, it would be the first time the city’s fire department would buy used pumpers, O’Neill said.
The $365,000 is the asking price from Palmetto Fire Apparatus, a Georgia company that sells firetrucks and parts. One new truck costs about $400,000, he said.
The fire department’s mechanic will inspect the trucks as early as next week and then a price for the vehicles would be negotiated, O’Neill said.
While the two 1987 trucks and a 1989 model are the YFD’s reserve vehicles, the two that work are often used to fight fires, O’Neill said. The department has seven pumper trucks on active duty, he said.
The city can borrow money, spend current city funds or use other funding options to buy the trucks, said city Finance Director David Bozanich.
That decision could be made as part of the 2016 city budget process, Bozanich said.
Also at council’s meeting, the lawmakers approved an ordinance allowing the board of control to purchase eight metal detectors for the Covelli Centre.
The board is expected today to approve the purchase with the metal detectors delivered to the center in a few weeks.
The center has sought proposals for the metal detectors and the least-expensive one is for $29,560 from Event Metal Detectors LLC of Sylvania, Ohio, said Eric Ryan, the facility’s executive director.
Council also voted to refund $150,000 to the Corrections Corp. of America, which runs the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, a private prison on the city’s East Side.
CCA signed a deal in December 2013 to pay an inmate tax after a lengthy lawsuit over that fee.
The contract calls for CCA to pay $300,000 annually to the city, starting in 2014, if its average daily population is more than 1,250.
The CCA gets back half of that amount if the average daily population is between 750 and 1,250, and all of it back if the number dropped below 750.
The number was 852 last year, according to the council ordinance.
That happened because a CCA contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to house about 1,600 or so prisoners expired May 31, 2015.