Engine switch: Council OKs funding for different fire truck

Published 6:47 pm Saturday, November 28, 2015

Washington’s City Council, during its Nov. 23 meeting, authorized spending $448,995 on an in-stock/demonstration 2015 Pierce fire engine from Atlantic Emergency Solutions.

Earlier this year, the Washington City Council approved $450,000 for a new front-line fire engine. But discrepancies, including one concerning the year model, with that new apparatus were discovered by department personnel during an inspection of the vehicle, according to Robbie Rose, the city’s fire chief. After noticing the discrepancies, the department terminated that purchase.

“Robbie, I applaud the fact that you caught the discrepancies before you accepted the truck, which is a real plus for us because it’s something that C.W. Williams Co. advanced you information that was incorrect, then tried to pull the wool over your eyes,” Councilman Doug Mercer said to Robbie Rose, the city’s fire chief.

“Actually, it was the manufacturer that made the error, not the dealership (C.W. Williams Co.),” Rose responded.

“When the manufacturer sent the truck to the dealership, went over to make the inspection and that’s when we discovered the discrepancies in the title and the actual born-on date of the truck, as I said, was inconsistent with the information that I had given this council. So, that threw the first red flag up,” Rose said.

After terminating that deal, the department sent requests to seven fire-engine vendors for bids to provide the department with in-stock/demonstration models. An eighth vendor contacted the department about submitting its bid, Rose noted in a memorandum to city officials. After reviewing the proposals, the department recommended the city buy the Pierce fire engine.

The Pierce fire engine best meets the immediate needs of the department for a front-line fire engine, according to Rose.

In other action, the council authorized the city to accept a $32,000 grant from the Mid-East Commission Area Agency on Aging. The annual grant will be used to support programs and services provided by city’s Grace Harwell Martin Senior Center. Under terms of the grant, it is required to provide a $6,000 contribution.

 

 

 

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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