New fire truck a possibility for 2025 in Medford area

A new tender truck may be in the future for the Medford Area Fire Department.

Fire Chief Mike Filas alerted commission members at their December 21 quarterly meeting that they would be beginning to talk about the truck purchase at their next meeting scheduled for March 15.

A tender is a specialized vehicle designed to bring water, foam, or dry chemicals to fire trucks in the field. Water tenders have a large truck-mounted tank with a minimum of 1,000 gallons and up to 4,000 gallons of water. Water tenders are typically larger, less agile apparatus.

The commission budgets each year for member municipalities to contribute to a fund which saves up for the purchase of equipment every few years. According to Filas, the goal would be to have a committee with firefighters look at specifications to bring to the commission to commit to the purchase of a tender by the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024. Even then it will be some time before a new truck is put in service with mid to late 2025 the earliest to be expected.

According to Filas, it is currently taking 18 months to two years for trucks that are ordered to be delivered. “I am hoping it gets to be less than that,” he said, noting that the companies that are building the fire trucks are seeing a demand that trucks are being produced and sold right away.

One of the challenges for the department will be price and if the department will be able to lock in the price at the time of the order or if it will go up until the date it is delivered.

Filas said a new tender currently costs between $300,000 and $350,000. “Ten years ago they were $280,000,” he said.

In other business commission members:

  Formally approved Filas to remain as chief for another year. Each year the firefighters hold an annual meeting where they vote on a chief which is then forwarded as a recommendation to the commission for action.

  Received an update on the year-end budget and the purchase of radio equipment with funding received from Taylor County. According to Filas, the new radios were scheduled to come in and be billed in 2023 and were included in next year’s budget. He said they came in earlier than expected and the payment is on the 2022 budget. He said with the $51,000 received from Taylor County for the project they were able to cover the expense. He said while the radios have arrived the other parts of the packages including the chargers have yet to arrive so more will need to be done in order to get them into service. Commission members questioned if the department would be receiving all of what was ordered, Filas assured them they would be.

  Approved the annual budget transfer to move funds from the annual budget into the long-term vehicle replacement fund and a fund for building maintenance and improvement. Commission members approved $81,000 to go into the equipment replacement and $5,000 for the building fund.