Town Manager Grady Miller told the council staff failed to include an “owner’s allowance” in accepting the bid early this year.

 

The owner’s allowance would be used to cover and change orders or cost overruns. Miller said the allowance was not included because staff expected to be able to keep the project at or below the bid cost.

The federal agency announced this week that the department along Route 981, just north of Mt. Pleasant Borough, has qualified for a $1,082,500 rural development loan to construct a new fire station.  

Fire department president Lee Speer declined to release specifics of the construction plan because the fire company has not received formal notification that its loan application has been approved although the agency’s Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett announced Wednesday that project was among 41 low-interest loans totalling $291 million approved in 18 states. However, he confirmed firefighters were eagerly awaiting word on it.

Department leadership had sought to buy a new pumper truck and replace a leaking tank on a water truck the department has owned since the 1990s. The two new trucks would have been built by Custom Fab and Body, an apparatus supplier located in Shawano County, for slightly more than $523,000 for the pair.

 

Last month, the fire board proposed taking $323,000 from the department's truck replacement fund to pay for the work, leaving a balance in the fund of around $60,000. The three towns' boards would then be asked to borrow the $200,000 difference to pay for completing the trucks.

While the old truck featured a boom with a bucket, the new truck has a boom, bucket and a ladder. The truck also has room for additional equipment, including the hydraulic rescue tool known as the Jaws of Life, hoses, tarps, extinguishers, fans and extra “ground ladders.”

“Typically, whenever we’re responding to a fire at a two-story house, we go around and ladder all the windows,” Flynn said. “It gives firefighters another way to exit the building if they have to get out in a hurry.”

Having the increased reach of the new truck’s boom also allows for tactics such as vertical ventilation, where firefighters can be deployed on a structure’s roof. The firefighters can then open vents or cut holes in the roof, which allows heat and smoke to escape, Flynn said.