Jan 8, 2021 2 min read

Washington City Council approved the purchase of a new fire truck Thursday, with the contract being awarded to Pierce Manufacturing for $633,195.

Council agreed to allocate Community Development Block Grant funding for the purchase, including $134,000 in 2021 CDBG funds.

Fire Chief Gerald Coleman said that after about a year of research, THE department plans to get a rescue engine.

“We can use that rig, not just on fires but on medical calls and accidents,” he said. “We’re looking at what truck is going to best suit the city for the next 20 years.”

Coleman said the truck probably won’t be delivered from the manufacturer until early 2022.

Council also hired three new firefighters from the civil service list: Chad Wehr, Matthew Lascola and Andreas Kademenos. The new hires will go through weeks of training at the state fire academy prior to starting the job.

There were two vacancies due to recent retirements, Coleman said. Due to one of his members being deployed to Afghanistan and another being out for an injury much of the year, Coleman said, the department’s been short staffed for a while, forcing the number of overtime hours to increase.

“We were four guys short at one time,” he said.

The civil service hiring process also took a long time, due to a historically large number of applicants and additional precautions due to COVID-19.

“It was a daunting task,” Coleman said. “They’re really, really good candidates, and we’re happy to have them.”