After nearly seven months of debating whether the township should lease a ladder truck from the City of Rochester Fire Department, Addison officials voted unanimously Aug. 20 to go ahead with the two-year lease.
‘It’s time to move on this so we can save our folks some money,? said Fire Chief George Spencer.
Spencer told this reporter he’s glad the board finally made up their mind because Rochester was ready to take the truck back if they were still undecided. Addison has been housing the truck since May 2006.
The lease agreement will allow the ATFD to use the 1981 Sutphin aerial ladder truck, which can maneuver large amounts of water over the top of a large fire. The department had no such truck in their fleet until now.
Valued at $35,000, the truck will cost the fire department approximately $1,200 a year to lease plus an additional $1,200 annual payment that begin in February 2008.
Other associated costs for the truck would require yearly ladder testing ($500), pump testing ($250) and annual maintenance ($1,000).
With the lease, insurance and associated costs combined, the total cost to use and maintain the vehicle would be a little over $4,000 a year.
A large benefit of having the ladder truck, according to Spencer, is how much money it will save residents in insurance by receiving a higher Insurance Service Office (ISO) rating.
ISO is a private company which determines a fire department’s capacity to serve the public by conducting reviews and surveys.
Spencer explained that residents would save about $50 in insurance costs per household because the fire department now has this truck. If you multiply that by the number of households in Addison, it’s projected to save $125,000 per year.
Over a 15-year period, Spencer said the vehicle could save residents a total of $1.9 million.
Trustee Ed Brakefield was the only board member concerned with the ‘antique? age of the truck, but the fire chief assured him it is ‘in exquisitely good shape for a truck of that age.?
Spencer reminded Brakefield that a brand new truck would cost at least $700,000.