Lavonia Approves Purchase of New Fire Truck

The City of Lavonia has approved the purchase of a new fire truck for the Lavonia Fire Department.

At their monthly city council meeting, the council heard from Scott O’Barr who told the council the department is in need of a new mobile water tank pick up truck.

O’Barr said the truck is vital to firefighters when they’re out fighting a structure fire.

“The current truck is a 1982 regular model Ford cab pick up,” O’Barr said. “The fire department has done some modifications to it to change it from a mini-pumper to the cascade system that we currently have.”

O’Barr said the cascade system is a mobile unit used to fill water tanks at the scene of a fire.  O’Barr said however, the current truck has outlived its usefulness and needs to be replaced.

“The problem is the truck is outdated, it’s only  a manual speed transmission, it’s two-door and it’s limited to how many firefighters you can take to and from the scene,” O’Barr told the city council.

O’Barr proposed the purchase of a new truck designed specifically for water tank transfer.  And he said it could be used for other purposes as well.

“The new truck will be a four-door chassis and we’ll be able to carry more firefighters to the scene,” he said. “If we have this newer truck we will also be able to better help provide mutual aid to other fire departments as well.”

O’Barr said they would save the city money by transferring most of the equipment on the old truck to the new one.

Total cost of the new fire truck is $94,290, which would be paid for using current SPLOST funds.   After hearing from O’Barr, the city council voted to approve unanimously the purchase of the new fire truck.