With a new fire station to be completed by the end of the year, a new ambulance won’t be far behind.
The York City Council on Thursday night approved a $459,971 bid from North Central Emergency Vehicles of Lincoln for a new ambulance.
However, the city won’t need to pay until 2027.
The new fire station will have a larger apparatus floor, providing more room for vehicles.
“We’re either toying with the idea of going to four ambulances in place of the three,” Fire Chief Tony Bestwick said, “or we just replace one of them that needs replaced instead of holding onto it and still have three.”
It takes two years to build an ambulance, he said.
“If we don’t sign a contract by May 1, the price of this goes up by 3%,” Bestwick said. That would amount to an additional $12,000 to $15,000.
By approving the purchase now, he said, the city council could ensure that the price wouldn’t go up.
“That will lock us in, and we don’t have to pay until Oct. 1, 2027,” Bestwick said.
“That’s why we wanted to get it on this agenda,” Mayor Barry Redfern said. “It gives us three budget years.”
The council can decide how much of the purchase they want to pay each budget year, he said.
“If we want to pay cash, do any kind of public service bonds or anything else,” Redfern added.
“It’s a very strange thing because you’re approving something for two budget years down the road,” City Administrator Sue Crawford said.
If the council didn’t approve the ambulance now, Councilman Jerry Wilkinson said, tariffs could increase the cost even more.
“It does feel like a good time to lock in a number,” Redfern said.
The quote from North Central Emergency Vehicles includes $384,971 for the Ford F-550 four-by-four diesel ambulance and $75,000 for a Stryker Powerload and PowerPro 2 cot.
Also on Thursday night, Bestwick delivered the Fire Department’s annual report to the city council.
“We had a rough summer with fatalities,” he said. “We had five accidents with seven fatalities within two months.”
Bestwick said all the fatal vehicle accidents involved Highway 34 in some way.
“If there’s anything else we can do to make Highway 34 safer,” he said, “we need to work on that as a city.”
The department also responded to the drowning death of an infant in 2024, Bestwick said.
“We learned some things about coming together, helping each other,” he said.
The Fire Department set a record with 4,159 training hours and responded to 1,653 calls.
“We were just a little short of our record last year of 1,681,” he said.
Bestwick also gave the council an update on construction of the new fire station.
In other action, the council:
* Approved a quote from Electric Pump of Des Moines, Iowa, to repair a pump at the wastewater treatment plant for $28,407.
* Approved the health insurance contract for city employees for May 1, 2025, through April 30, 2026.
* Had the first of three readings for an ordinance to annex the new Countryside Estates