TYLERTOWN — For the first time in more than 10 years, the town will pursue purchasing a new fire truck.
Joseph Stinson, the town’s fire chief as well as the attorney for the board of aldermen, proposed seeking about $70,000 from the state’s Rural Fire Truck Acquisition Fund.
The town is eligible for the funding because it has a contract with the county to respond to fires outside the town limits in most of District 2 and a swath roughly six miles north to south across the county, Stinson said.
The last three trucks purchased were in 1989, 2004 and 2006 or 2007, he said, with the 1989 and 2004 trucks being pumper trucks and the last truck a tanker truck.
“The big pumpers help us maintain our fire insurance rating,” Stinson said.
Trucks such as the pumpers Tylertown fields now, which are built on custom chassis, maintain their ratings as long as the pump tests are current and above acceptable limits.
Trucks on commercial chassis, such as Ford or GMC, can maintain their full ratings for 15 years, Stinson said, then may get partial credit in insurance ratings based on their test results.
Stinson said he was proposing to purchase a smaller truck “that is more nimble and takes less people to operate,” that would come on a Ford chassis. He said the truck would still qualify as a Class A pumper with a 1,000 gallon-per-minute output rate.
Smaller trucks are the trend, he said, and will be easier to operate for a department that struggles to respond to fires sometimes.
“Our volunteers are down,” Stinson said. “We’ve gone from having 20 slots with a waiting list, to it being hard to get four people to a fire.”
He said the town may need to consider moving to a full-time, paid department in the near future.
The truck would cost about $250,000, Stinson said, meaning the grant funds would cover a little more than a quarter of the cost.
Aldermen unanimously voted to pursue the grant.
In other business, the board:
• Heard a brief report from Alderman Doug Walker on efforts to create a flood control lake on the Pearl River near Jackson.
Walker said many downriver governments, including Marion County and Columbia, oppose the move, while local and state leaders near Jackson tend to favor it.
The town could consider passing a resolution opposing the project.
“So, the bigshots in Jackson are for it, and the poor folks down here are against it,” Mayor Ed Hughes said.
“Basically,” Walker replied.
“There are no bigshots in Jackson,” Alderman Denson Case interjected.
“They think they are,” Walker said.
• Approved the report of receipts of $198.197.09, including $133,868.61 to the general fund, $12,891.67 in leases, $22,891.67 in sanitation and $29,271.82 in water and sewer.
• Paid the claims of $196,014.78, including $151.574.04 from the general fund, $24,482.85 from sanitation and $19,957 from water and sewer.
