The Newton Fire Department is putting a brand new truck in service this week, after their new pumper truck arrived Monday morning.
NAFECO Police & Fire Equipment in Decatur, Ala., delivered the new pumper around 11 a.m. Monday to the fire station.
Fire Chief J.C. “Jay” Collins said he has been working on getting the truck ever since he became fire chief four years ago.
“We’ve been needing to replace this pumper since before I became fire chief,” Collins said. “It will be replacing a ’97 or 98’ model custom truck. It was certified for 20 years plus a five-year extension. We’re hoping that the new truck will be able to that for us as long as the regulations stay the same.”
The new truck was built by KME and equipped by NAFECO for $542,477.99. Collins said all it needed to go in service was to fill it with water. Then, they could start responding to calls almost immediately.
The truck has a capacity of 1,000 gallons and can pump 1,250 gallons of water per minute. It came with all of the hoses and other equipment preinstalled to make it easier for Newton to put the truck in service.
“We didn’t want the new truck to sit around here waiting on us to have fundraisers to get the new equipment in,” Collins said. “That’s why we wanted it to come fully equipped so that we could begin using right away.”
The City of Newton is financing the new fire truck through the Mississippi Development Authority on a 10-year loan with a fixed interest rate of 3.0 percent.
Collins said they needed the new truck to maintain its citywide 6 rating by the Insurance Services Office. That means it will help keep the insurance rates lower for city residents.
“There’s probably nothing wrong with the pumper we’re replacing, but because of its age, it would have affected our ISO rating if we didn’t get a new truck to replace it,” Collins said. “This will help keep our current rating.”
Collins said they will use the new truck mainly on calls within the city limits and use their other county trucks on calls outside the city.
