Photo from Hoover Fire Department website
Hoover fire ladder trucks 2015
The Hoover Fire Department conducts training with its aerial ladder trucks in 2015.
The Hoover City Council on Tuesday night is scheduled to consider a budget amendment for a new $1 million fire truck.
Hoover fire Chief Chuck Wingate said this is the third year he has asked for a new ladder truck to replace an aging one at Station No. 4, and an opportunity has arisen to get one quicker and cheaper than usual.
Ladder trucks typically have a 20-year lifespan, and the one at Station No. 4 on Municipal Drive is in its 19th year, Wingate said. It still works, but if it is not replaced soon, it could count against the Fire Department’s insurance rating, he said.
If the Fire Department were to order a brand new truck right now, it likely would cost $1.2 million and take 1½ years to build, Wingate said. The Fire Department has found a truck with a 100-foot ladder already built and loaded with the equipment Hoover needs and available for sale, he said.
The manufacturer is Kovatch Mobile Equipment, which is a company the Hoover Fire Department has used before, Wingate said. The truck has a platform at the top of the ladder and two water cannons that can process 2,000 gallons per minute, which is more processing capacity than any other truck the department has, he said.
If the City Council approves the purchase of the new truck, Wingate said he plans to keep the existing truck at Station No. 4 as a reserve truck.
There are two other ladder trucks in service right now: a 75-foot ladder truck at Station No. 7 in Inverness and a 75-foot ladder truck at Station No. 10 in Ross Bridge, Wingate said. The department also has a 1982 ladder truck in reserve that is stored at the Inverness station, he said.
The department tried to sell the 1982 ladder truck, but no departments wanted it because using a truck that age hurts on inspection scores, he said. It sickened him to sell it for $1,000 when it’s a fairly serviceable truck, so he kept it in reserve, Wingate said.
Regarding the new truck he wants to buy, Wingate said it’s not easy to sell a $1 million fire truck to a new City Council, but he believes the city will save money and time by going ahead and purchasing it now.
In other business Tuesday night, the council is scheduled to consider:
- Renewing an agreement for the National Association of School Resource Officers to lease space in the Hoover Public Safety Center.
- Annexing two vacant residential parcels on Strollaway Drive off Patton Chapel Road. (This will be a first reading only. A vote is not scheduled until Jan. 17.)
- Appointing someone to fill Randy Lott’s unexpired term on the Hoover Parks and Recreation Board and someone to fill Michael Krawcheck’s expired term on the Hoover Library Board.
- Cutting the high grass and/or weeds at 3256 Mockingbird Lane and 2301 Mountain Oaks Lane and charging the property owner due to the properties being a public nuisance.
- Authorizing the Hunan Garden Restaurant to sell liquor at 1851 Montgomery Highway in The Plaza at Riverchase shopping center and Pinot’s Palette to sell beer and wine at 181 Main Street in the Patton Creek shopping center.
