The Case for the Truck

The City of Glasgow has sent out a letter of intent to raise funds for a fire appliance asking property owners inside city limits to make an important decision in the coming weeks.

The Glasgow City Council and the Glasgow Fire Department have jointly conducted a comprehensive, detailed fire protection needs assessment of our community. The results of the needs assessment indicate that the city has two unreliable and unsafe fire trucks that need to be replaced. The two trucks are a 1976 pumper truck and a 1988 ladder truck that have served our community beyond their safe and reliable service life. Both trucks require more in repair costs to keep them operating than they are currently worth.

If the Special Improvement District No. 1 for the purchase of an Appliance for Fire Protection is created, the Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Fire Department plan to replace these two trucks with a single fully-functioning, well-maintained, gently-used, pumper truck that also has a ladder on top. The proposed truck will have the ability to service every building in town from small to large. The cost of the used truck the City of Glasgow is searching for is $500,000 as compared to about $800,000 for a new one. Through fundraising efforts in our community, you have helped the Fire Department raise $150,000 to put towards the purchase. The cost to replace both of these trucks, if purchased new, is approximately $1,250,000, making the used dual purpose truck a much more financially responsible option for our community.

By purchasing a truck of this design, it allows us to meet the requirement to maintain the current fire rating which affects your insurance costs. Creating this district will allow property owners to maintain their current level of savings that benefits them. In the event that the Special Improvement District is not created, the result could be an increase of insurance costs as much as 10 percent. As an example a property that would sell today for about $200,000 could result in an insurance cost increase of $120 per year or more. The same property would only pay approximately $15 per year to maintain the current level of fire protection if the measure passes.

The safety of your community and the safety of your neighbors, who serve this community by volunteering their time, are greatly increased by having safer and more reliable equipment. Thank you for considering the proposed Special Improvement District that, if created, will provide your fire department with the tools and equipment it needs to protect the Glasgow community.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact a member of the Glasgow Fire Department.