A new fire truck will be delivered to Columbia Falls this year, thanks to an agreement between the city and the rural fire district that allowed the two agencies to split the cost.
City Manager Susan Nicosia made the announcement during last week’s city council meeting and said the new truck would cost almost $325,000. She said the purchase was made possible through a 2005 interlocal agreement that was amended in the fall of 2011 to allow the city and the Columbia Falls Rural Fire District to jointly purchase equipment. Although both areas are staffed by the Columbia Falls Volunteer Fire Department, the city and the outlying area are technically two different departments and could not share or purchase equipment together before last fall’s amendment to the interlocal agreement.
“We figured, ‘Why should we buy two big pieces of equipment when we can just buy one and share the costs?’” Nicosia said.
Nicosia said five major companies put bids forward and the final price was lower than they had first expected, adding that the average cost of a new fire truck can be upwards of $400,000.
Mayor Don Barnhart, who was also the city’s former fire chief, said the joint purchase was a major step for the city and its fire department. He said the two agencies had been working on a joint purchase like this for 30 years.