Medic 1 is one of three ambulances in the city's fleet. The others are 2008 and 2012 models in better condition.

Three times during the past two years, the department was denied grants sought to replace Medic 1 because of the ambulance's low mileage, Fire Chief Ted Anderson wrote in a memorandum to the council.

There were 69,518 miles on its odometer as of last week. That is "somewhat low" for an ambulance needing to be replaced, Anderson said in a phone interview Monday. But it has seen much wear and tear over the years when traveling to and from medical calls, he added.

The main concern, though, is the condition of its motor.

Medic 1 has a type of motor that Ford introduced the year in which the ambulance was built. Anderson wrote in the memorandum that the motor type, a 6.0, has "been plagued with numerous problems" over the years.

As a result, "we basically got a lemon" with Medic 1, he said in the interview. "It's just a bad vehicle."

The fire and EMS department paid about $185,000 for the ambulance, Anderson said to his understanding. Yet since 2004, it has spent almost $88,000 - equaling roughly 48 percent of the purchase cost - on repairs, he said.

City vehicles usually are repaired at the city's garage. However, Medic 1 sometimes has been repaired by private garages because the repairs it needed exceeded the city garage's capabilities.

"One time," Anderson recalled, "it had to have its motor rebuilt, and it was put together with bits and pieces of other motors" that another garage had acquired.

Along with the costly repairs, "the significant down time of this unit has resulted in missed EMS calls to our citizens and the inability to perform routine maintenance on other ambulances," he said.

"We have a strong relationship with our local fire departments, so we are very pleased to help them stay well-equipped," Dean Piper, maintenance department manager at Georgia-Pacific's Bowling Green Dixie facility, said in a news release. "These grants show our gratitude for their selfless dedication."

The grant will go toward the replacement of full-body protective gear that no longer meets standards set by the National Fire Protection Association. Each set costs more than $2,000.

"This grant will improve the safety of firefighters by providing lighter and better protection," fire Chief Bob Skipper said in a news release. "It will help us stay on track with our five-year master plan to invest in a new station near the Georgia-Pacific facility."

This year, Georgia-Pacific awarded $170,000 in grants to fire departments for equipment critical to firefighters' safety.

Fire Chief Brain Brasington brought the issue to the fire board, which is comprised of residents from Stanton and Douglass, Evergreen and Sidney townships.

"We had it over 20 years, and it had over 1 million miles," Brasington said. "The motor was getting weak, it was leaking oil, and it was old and wasn't complaint."

The cost of the new/used truck is $133,000 and will replace the 30-year-old tanker, which served a former life as a coast-to-coast semi before being bought by the Stanton Community Fire Department. Etankers, a Grand Ledge company that rebuilds and repurposes firetrucks, is currently working on converting an old cement truck chassis into a tanker-pumper.

The city of Stanton and Douglass, Evergreen and Sidney townships will each pay a quarter of the bill. Until last November, the approximately $33,850 cost wasn’t feasible without Sidney Township passing a fire millage.

As for the old firetruck, the Stanton Community Fire Department sold it for $5,000 to be rebuilt once more.