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WILKES-BARRE — The city is moving ahead with the purchase of a new aerial ladder truck for the fire department.
City council next week will be asked to approve the purchase of a 2020 Pierce Enforcer 107-foot Ascendant tractor drawn aerial ladder through Glick Fire Equipment Co. Inc. at a cost of $1,186,345, according to a resolution on the agenda for Tuesday night’s work session.
Wilkes-Barre Fire Department Chief Jay Delaney said he will make a presentation to council at the nonvoting work session. The vote will be at council’s public meeting on Thursday.
“We’re at it for four years,” Delaney said Thursday of the efforts to purchase a new ladder truck.
The department has been using a ladder truck it purchased in 2003 with federal funds. Parts are hard to get and the technology is outdated, Delaney had previously said.
The city was awarded a Local Share Account grant of $420,000 in March from the state. The money is from a portion of the gambling revenues at Mohegan Sun Pocono casino in Plains Township. The remainder will come from Community Development Block Grant funding.
Office of Economic and Community Development Director Joyce Morrash Zaykowski said the down payment will be made this year. “The balance will be included in next year’s budget,” she said.
Money that had been sitting in a revolving loan fund for years and the remainder of a loan to build the Park & Lock East parkade that was sold to the Wilkes-Barre Parking Authority for $1.55 million this year will be used to purchase the new aerial ladder truck.
It will take a year for the truck to be made to the department’s specifications and delivered, Zaykowski said.
“You just don’t order a truck,” Zaykowski said.