Quincy buys ladder truck

QUINCY — The Quincy City Council approved buying a used ladder truck.

The 1995 E-ONE ladder truck will cost the city $383,507 before taxes. The price includes about $54,507 worth of maintenance including new lights, an engine overhaul and replacing the hydraulic lines.

The city was looking for a replacement truck for the Quincy fire station after their previous one failed to meet safety requirements. The money is coming from a fund dedicated to buying fire equipment.

Council approved sending Don Fortier, fire district 3’s fire chief, and Councilmember Manuel Guerrero to Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus in Alabama to look at the truck.

“We spent about three hours that morning crawling all over that piece of equipment,” Fortier said. “They’ve already got it painted. … We probably wrote up a good two pages, three pages of things we would like to see them address.”

The company will fix about 69 items for free, but there are about 13 other maintenance items Fortier said he wanted done, costing an extra $54,507.

“Those are the big ticket items,” he said. “There’s a couple of cosmetic items in there, which are relatively small cost. The reason we asked for prices on those, it’s just going to make the truck look a lot nicer. When you’re dealing with volunteer firefighters … you want them to take pride in the vehicle.”

Fortier said it would be less expensive to have the company deal with these issues in Alabama than fix them in Washington.

“The shop rates down there are $65 an hour,” he said. “I’ve been told a diesel mechanic up here is $125 an hour … I don’t want it to be in service and take it out for a couple of weeks.”

If there were any problems with the maintenance items, the truck would need to be fixed in Yakima or Spokane, Fortier said.

Mark Merritt, Cascade Fire and Safety Equipment’s president, said Brindlee Mountain will pay for a final inspection trip for two people. The truck comes with a two-year warranty.

Merritt pointed out a $1,500 ladder certification and a $4,800 replacement of the rear tires as two of the more costly items the company is willing to fix for free. He said he was surprised the company didn’t argue about any of the 69 items.

“We sat down and it was like, ‘Yep, no problem, yep, yep,’” he said. “There are just a few things … that I pointed out in the essence of where they’re putting their money where their mouth is.”

The company will drive the truck to Quincy once the work is done.

The city won’t have to pay for the truck until it arrives.

“They don’t want anything until you’re here and you’re satisfied,” Merritt said.

Fortier said it could take about 90 days for delivery.

Quincy Mayor Jim Hemberry said the city got the solution he had hoped for by buying a used truck.

“We ended up getting what I think is a good piece of equipment, and we’re going to have money left over to replace other items in the future,” he said.