Penhold council approved the purchase of a new tender truck for its fire department from the City of Red Deer.
Capt. Steve Harris of the Penhold Fire Department made a presentation to council at a council meeting on Aug. 8.
The new truck is expected to cost the town $25,000 as is, but extra expense will be incurred cost when all the required work (for the truck) is completed.
“As (Harris) referred to, by the time they replace the tank and the pumping unit, that would be $198,000 (total),” said Cooper, noting the town does have the $25,000 in reserves. “That ($198,000) will happen over a couple of years or at least one or two budgets. We have to make sure we have the funds in place before we start that additional work.
“The truck can still be used as it is now. It can still hold water in that manner,” he added.
While the truck is not now completely set up as a fire truck, noted Cooper, it does have the ability to hold about 10,000 litres of water.
“It doesn't have a fire pump on it - it has another type of pump but with a little bit of work we can go through the process of changing the truck over to be a full firefighter tender,” he said.
The Penhold Fire Department currently has a tender truck that is already set up to assist with firefighting, said Cooper, but a new truck will be needed in the near future.
“It's getting to a point where it's reaching its 25-year life line so we have to start working towards getting a replacement and a new truck to help support our other units,” said Cooper. “This just replaces older equipment with newer equipment to try and keep our firefighting capabilities as modern as possible.”
Dennis Cooper, Penhold Mayor
"This just replaces older equipment with newer equipment to try and keep our firefighting capabilities as modern as possible."
