Lee Commission approves purchase of new fire rescue truck

LEESBURG — Lee County Public Safety will soon be better equipped to handle county rescue situations now that the Board of Commissioners has approved the purchase of a new fire apparatus rescue truck.

The approval came at the commission’s regular voting session Tuesday night following the presentation of the lowest bid notice by interim Public Safety Director Wesley Wells. Wells said Lee County Fire Chief James Howell had evaluated the bids and determined the lowest qualified bid of $125,640 came from Custom Trucks and Body Works Inc. of Woodbury.

Custom Trucks will install a winch for $3,800, bringing the total expense for the new rescue truck to $129,440. Funding for the truck was allocated in the county’s SPLOST VI referendum, and delivery of the vehicle is expected within 150 days.

County Commission Chairman Rick Muggridge said the decision to approve the purchase was easy for him, as he believes public safety is one of the areas that should be addressed by SPLOST funding.

“It’s the best use of SPLOST funds, I think,” said Muggridge. “SPLOST ought to be about roads, and (infrastructure) projects and public safety vehicles. It’s our obligation to fulfill the promise we made to the voters. We said, ‘If you vote for this, these are the promises we make.’ We have a moral obligation really.”

Wells explained that the new rescue truck will replace a 1998 fire apparatus vehicle that has 161,000 miles and is considered unsafe.

“The current rescue truck we have is a ‘99 model and has been in service for 18 years,” he said. “It’s been involved in multiple accidents and has been deemed virtually unsafe at this point.

“We are not able to respond in the way we would like to, and we’re asking you to grant us this approval to purchase a new rescue truck that would serve for the next several years.”

With the purchase of the new vehicle, Muggridge said Lee County is continuing its recent trend of making significant improvements to the county’s fleet of Public Safety-related vehicles.

“We’ve really made a dramatic difference in the sheriff’s fleet in the last four years,” said Muggridge. “The sheriff was operating with vehicles which were really way too old, and we’ve made a significant change there. In the last four years we’ve purchased a couple of ambulances and we’ve purchased a firetruck. And now we’re adding the rescue truck. Public Safety benefits everybody.”

In other matters, commissioners authorized Howell, who is also the director of the county’s Emergency Management Agency, to file an application to renew a grant agreement with the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency that provides $8,500 to the EMA to help pay salaries.

The commission also voted unanimously, minus absent Commissioner Greg Frich, to approve a modification to a contract with Kirksey Construction to include the construction of a new restroom at the Park Street baseball facility. The restroom will have the same design as a newly constructed restroom facility on Jordan Road that was also built by Kirksey.

Commissioners also unanimously approved the purchase of $57,011.87 worth of HVAC controls for the Lee County Jail. The invoice is from ESS, which determined that the new controls will allow the jail’s current system to function properly and more efficiently, meaning there will be heat throughout the facility this winter.

The commission approved a lengthy consent agenda that included a request to rezone a portion of property adjacent to Story Lane, Marlow Lane and U.S. Highway 82 to allow for the building of single-family homes with a natural buffer. The consent agenda also included the approval of a request to abandon a drainage easement that traverses property owned by DAI-SOL Land Holdings in Land Lot 251 of the county’s second Land District.

The consent agenda included approval to allow the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to build a boat ramp along the Kinchafoonee Creek, just below the bridge on U.S. Highway 19 at the southern end of the county.