City to approve proposals for fire department equipment

By Jay Ermis

The Huntsville Fire Department will have a chance to add to its firefighting arsenal should the City Council approve two proposals on Tuesday night’s agenda.

The council meets in executive session at 5 p.m. for the annual review of Municipal Judge John Gaines followed by the special session at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

The nine-member council will consider accepting a Texas Fire Service Rural Fire Department Assistance Program grant for $54,000 and authorizing the purchase of a Pierce Contender Tanker/Pumper fire truck from Martin Apparatus Inc. for $236,105.

The Huntsville Fire Department applied for the grant under then HB 2604 Rural Volun-teer Fire Department Assistance Program through the Texas Forest Service over four years ago.

The grant money was intended to be utilized to retrofit the HFD’s Unit 620 which was wrecked and placed out of service in 2006.

Fire Chief Tom Grisham was notified Oct. 12 that the grant had been approved and the current status of Unit 620 was explained to the Texas Forest Service.

The request to apply the funds to the already ordered fast attack truck were approved by the state agency.

It was required by the grant that the city either accept or decline the grant within 14 days of the receipt of notification.

The 14 days ended Friday with city manager Kevin Evans signing the acceptance letter.

Grisham said the fast attack fire truck can serve as the incident command post at fires and other disaster scenes and also be used as a transport vehicle for fightfighters to out-of-town training.

Grisham said the new tanker/pumper fire truck will provide two trucks in one — one that can be used as a tanker truck with a 2,000-gallon water tank on board in addition to a pumper truck, utilizing a fire hydrant.

The new truck is scheduled to replace a 1973 city-built tanker truck that will be removed from service as soon as the new truck arrives. It will also replace a 1985 Mack truck with a 3,000-gallon tank that was wrecked last year.

Grisham said the City Council approved the purchase of the five-man cab fire truck in the 2007-08 fiscal year budget.

The truck will be equipped with fire equipment and accessories that will be purchased by sealed bid.

Estimated cost for the equipment is $43,000.

Other items on Tuesday night’s agenda are:

• Public Comments (Regarding agenda items only)

• Consider minutes of April 24 and Oct. 16.

• Approve Ordinance 2007-10-30.1 amending the 2006-07 annual budget.

• Authorize the purchase of:

• 4 Crane Carrier residential truck chassis from Longhorn International Trucks, LTD

• 4 Heil residential service bodies with Curotto Can automated collection system attachments from Heil of Texas

• 7,500 Toter rollout carts from Toter Incorporated

• 1 Mack commercial truck chassis from Dallas Mack Sales, LP

• 1 Heil commercial service body from Heil of Texas; and

• Authorize the trade-in of:

• 5 rear load residential collection vehicles and 1 commercial collection vehicle to Heil of Texas for the Solid Waste Automation.

• Approve financing for automated collection vehicles and rollout carts for the Residential Solid Waste Automated Collection program.

• Approve the purchase of the annual Crimes license agreement at a cost not to exceed 30,000 to be funded from budgeted funds.

• Authorize the purchase and installation of 9 SCADA units to AtKo Consulting in an amount not to exceed $84,400 to be paid for with budgeted funds.

• Accept the Master Plan for Oakwood Cemetery as prepared by Ed Bullock of CEBArchitecture and approved and accepted by the Huntsville Cemetery Advisory Board on Oct. 18, 2007.

• Authorize the city manager to enter into an annual contract with Vulcan Materials for the purchase of basalt rock at a cost of $46.40 per ton, with the option to renew for one additional year, to be funded from budgeted funds.

• Approve entering into one year contract with an option to renew one additional year from various products for street and directional sign materials with Custom Products, Hall Signs, Vulcan Signs, Pathmark Traffic, Traffic Safety Brackets and Osburn Associates, to be funded from budgeted funds.

• Approve Resolution 2007-10-30.1 voting for the Board of Directors of the Walker County Appraisal District for the 2008-2009 Term.

• Approve Resolution 2007-10-30.2 designating the representative and alternate to the General Assembly of the Houston-Galveston Area Council for the year 2008.

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