The Luverne Fire Department has added a key piece of equipment to its firefighting fleet.
Fire Chief Dave Van Batavia requested the Luverne City Council approve the purchase of a newer platform truck to replace the 1985 unit currently in use.
Van Batavia said the current 30-year-old truck is becoming a liability because of its age and obsolete parts.
He had located a 2010 truck in Trenton, Michigan, and negotiated a price of $550,000 contingent on a visual inspection and certification reports. To purchase a new one would cost more than $1 million.
City Councilwoman Caroline Thorson commended the fire chief for his conservative approach to the new equipment.
“We’re lucky to have good people like that being conscientious with taxpayer money,” Thorson said.
At their Tuesday night, Aug. 25, meeting, Luverne City Council members approved the purchase of the 2010 Rosenbauer 101’ platform firetruck.
Van Batavia and other fire department members and city mechanical staff had traveled to Michigan to inspect the truck and deemed it would suit the needs of the department for the next 20 years or longer.
The Rosenbauer manufacturing plant is located just north of Sioux Falls, so council members discussed the convenience of future service or parts replacement needs.
At Tuesday’s meeting the council discussed plans to pay for the truck from reserves, so that the expenditure will not affect the tax levy.
The fire department’s current platform truck is worth approximately $60,000 and will be advertised for sale in the appropriate trade publications.
A resolution amending the budget and detailing transfers to the Capital Equipment Fund will be on a future agenda.
In other business Aug. 25,
the council:
•approved an ordinance authorizing the sale of lots 1 and 3 on East Barck Avenue and repealing the ordinance adopted on Aug. 11. Merlin Cleveringa will develop the far east and far west lots first, instead of lots 1 and 2.
The development is in a Tax Increment Financing District because it involved eliminating blight and developing new housing stock (duplexes and triplexes).
•approved payment of $101,105 to Reker Construction and Aggregate for work completed on the Koehn Avenue improvement project.
Work completed in this pay period included 1,150 tons of asphalt, 2,360 tons of Class 5 aggregate Base, subgrade preparation, excavation and mobilization.
The project extends Koehn Avenue out to the future Industrial Park Area and it also connects to the developing area of Walnut Avenue.
The Economic Development Department was able to get a state grant for 50 percent of the pavement project. The total of the project contract is $189,358.