CHICKASHA – The City Council voted to spend $3 million to buy two new vehicles for fighting fires: a 100-foot aerial truck and a 750-gallon engine/ pumper.
The council followed the recommendations of Fire Chief Tony Samaniego and accepted bids submitted by Sutphen, a family-owned emergency services vehicle manufacturer founded in 1890 and based in Amlin, Ohio.
Chickasha will pay $2,126,805 for the ladder truck and $1,016,797 for the pumper truck, city records indicate.
In each case, “This lease/purchase item will not come on the books until delivery of the truck,” which is not expected for 34 to 38 months, and payments won’t start until approximately one year after delivery, Samaniego wrote. No down payment is required, he said.
“We’ll budget $300,000 this year” and plan to set aside similar amounts each following year in order to have “roughly $1 million” in cash when the new vehicles arrive, the chief told the council.
The new fire trucks will be financed from the proceeds of a 1.25% sales tax Chickasha voters approved on Aug. 8, 2023, primarily to pay for construction of a new water treatment plant and other capital improvements, he said.
The council noted that the vehicles’ sticker prices have risen markedly in just a few months, which Samaniego acknowledged, adding, “We’re bumping up against another price increase.”
The vehicles will be purchased through Heartland Fire Trucks based in Marlow, and its service center is located “in the Central High area” near Duncan, he said. Sutphen will provide a five-year service plan on both vehicles, records reflect.
Samaniego said he visited Sutphen’s manufacturing facility in Ohio “and the employees I met all had at least 25 years of experience.”
Councilwoman Georgianne Hebblethwaite noted that the chief assembled an “apparatus committee” that “spoke with numerous manufacturers” about firefighting vehicles, and Sutphen “struck the best balance in all areas.”
The committee also contacted other departments that recently purchased similar vehicles. “The feedback on both the manufacturer and the functionality of their apparatus was positive,” Samaniego wrote. The apparatus committee “anticipated the future needs of the city” to design vehicles “that will serve our citizens for the next 20 years.”
Chickasha’s Department of Fire and EMS has 36 career firefighter/emergency medical technicians and two civilians, and the department operates a fleet of 13 emergency vehicles from two stations.
Those include a 14-year-old ladder truck, a 2020 model engine/pumper and an 11-year-old engine/pumper, two brush trucks for extinguishing pasture fires, a couple of command vehicles, a squad vehicle, five ambulances, and one tanker “that is a Grady County truck parked at Station 1 for joint use,” Samaniego told Southwest Ledger.
“We will keep all of our trucks after we take delivery of the new ones, so that we can build up our reserve fleet and prepare for future growth,” the chief said. “If all goes according to plan, we will have an adequate reserve fleet and an apparatus replacement program moving forward. This will also help us ramp up our maintenance program, ultimately extending the life of the trucks.”
Between 3,500 and 4,000 requests for service are answered each year, and approximately 70% of service requests are for emergency medical service, the department reports. All Chickasha fire personnel are cross-trained as emergency medical technicians and paramedics Chickasha Fire and EMS responds to a wide variety of emergency and non-emergency requests for service. Emergency services include not only fire and EMS but also hazardous materials incidents, technical rescue incidents, and other hazardous conditions. Non-emergency services include checking smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.