This isn't your typical truck.  It will be the most advanced vehicle used in the long history of the DMFD.  The truck is loaded with ground ladders, a 250-gallon water tank and a pumping system that can move 2,500 gallons of water per minute.  

Fire Chief John TeKippe says the department knows this truck will meet their needs because it was designed by a team of firefighters with centuries of experience.

"The roughly 240 years of service that that committee had that went into this apparatus did not look backwards 240 years, they looked at today and going forward," said TeKippe, "Mosst of the creature comforts of this apparatus are by firefighters for firefighters and this will make them better at what they're doing and more comfortable and more safe in the process."

Fire Chief Michael Farrell told 7 News it will be an expensive piece of equipment for the city to replace. Farrell said the pumper, which is being evaluated, was due for replacement in two or three years.  

He also said it’s something that would be difficult for the department to do without. Firefighters have two other pumpers and an aerial truck that can be used as a pumper, but they need a fourth to do their jobs.

Farrell noted that a new pumper would cost between $350,000 and $500,000, but buying used or leasing would be less expensive.

The city’s Police and Fire Commission decided Tuesday to ask the nonprofit Wisconsin Policy Forum to study the possibility of a second station, additional staffing and more. The Common Council already set aside $15,000 for such a study, but the bids for it were too high, over $20,000. 

Fire Chief Alan Mannel said he believed the scope of the study had become too bloated, which made it more costly, and needed to be narrowed. the idea of a new fire station is getting wrapped up in discussions about emergency services in Dodge County as a whole.