Property owners in Greenville will not see their taxes increase to pay for the purchase of a new fire engine, fire department officials said Tuesday.
Greenville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Clif Powell said voters approved a proposition from the department to purchase a new $650,000 tanker engine.
The vote was held Dec. 13 at the department's annual commissioner election, Powell said. Of the approximate 1,000 taxpayers in the Greenville Fire District, only 28 voted, Powell said. The meeting had been publicized through a legal notice in the Greenville Pioneer.
"It was an overwhelming vote to approve it, 20 people voted yes and 8 voted against it," Powell said.
The new engine will replace an aging, leaking machine taken out of service two years ago, Powell said.
"It's going to be replacing one tanker than went out of service because the tank was about 40 years old and it had ruptured," Powell said. "The truck was a 1994 model but the tank was from the 1970s." Replacing the ruptured tank would cost approximately $100,000, Powell said, but with a 22-year-old chassis and engine, department leaders opted to move for a new engine.
"The life expectancy for an engine is no more than 20 years," Powell said.
Voters approved the proposal for a new engine, the department's first vehicle purchase since the acquisition of a 2007-model ladder truck a decade ago, Powell said.
But while fire district taxpayers will pay for the new machine, Powell said, the purchase will not cause fire district taxes to increase.