By JAMES BROWN
Glasgow News 1
The Cave City City Council approved for the mayor to pursue money to buy new equipment during Monday night’s regular July meeting.
Cave City fire chief Kevin Jandt explained to council members that his department needs 10 new air packs, and new tires for vehicles.
Mayor Dwayne Hatcher also pitched that the city needs a new chipper, which is used to clear tree branches, brush and logs. He said the one the city has now is no longer working properly.
“It’s gotten to where it is nickel and dimeing us to death,” Hatcher told council members.
Jandt said if the fire department buys Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus before Aug. 1, the company is offering a discount. The cost for 10 would be about $94,000. The cost after that date would be about $105,000.
The other item needed for the first department was new tires for each vehicle. The cost would be about $14,000, Jandt said.
Council member Andrew Bagshaw, who is also the battalion chief for the fire department, said both the tires and the air packs need to be replaced due to the ages of each.
He said the old air packs were made by a company that no longer exists and so repairs can’t be made to the packs.
“We need to have straight MSA Safety (packs) across the board and retire the old packs,” Bagshaw said.
Mayor Hatcher recommended to allow him to seek financing for all three of the items in one transaction with a local financial institution.
The council approved that recommendation. The total estimated cost for the chipper, air packs and fire department vehicle tires was $155,000.
The council agenda included a closed session for the discussion of real property or litigation. Presently, there are two lawsuits before the council regarding a data center moratorium and annexation of property.
Prior to going into the closed session, Hatcher said the committee that was created to develop guidelines regarding possible data center development has met.
“Hopefully we will have information from them next week,” the mayor said. He added the committee was developed as a fact-finding body, and will not put forth an opinion on a data center.
