The city’s newly-minted capital reserve fund took its first hit Tuesday, as council members voted unanimously to pull $285,000 from it to help pay for a new fire truck.
The vote cleared the way for Columbus Fire and Rescue to purchase a $975,000 Rosenbauer Commander Aerial Fire Truck, using State Insurance Fire Rebate and state legislative appropriations to cover the balance.
“I can assure you, we have an emergency,” Chief Duane Hughes told the council Tuesday. “Last week we had three fire trucks at the city shop. Two of them are still there.”
CFR has six mainline trucks and two in reserves, according to information Hughes provided The Dispatch after the meeting. If a fourth truck goes down, he told the council, CFR would either have to close a station or borrow a truck from elsewhere.
“The question now is, ‘What say you, mayor and council?’” Hughes asked the council before the vote.
Hughes said the new fire truck should be in service by mid-December. It should also keep the city from needing to buy a new one for up to eight years.
The city established an almost $5 million capital reserve fund when it approved the budget for Fiscal Year 2025, which began Oct. 1. Mayor Keith Gaskin said, both at Tuesday’s meeting and a Wednesday press conference at City Hall, these kinds of purchases are the fund’s purpose.
“You hope that you don’t (have to use it), but just like with your home finances you always try to prepare for the unexpected,” Gaskin said Wednesday. “… We hope this type of thing is rare.”
CFR bought a similar truck last year, using a Federal Emergency Management Agency Assistance for Firefighters grant. This year, the department’s application was denied.
That forced CFR to look to a $360,000 legislative appropriation and what it believed to be $700,000 in its State Insurance Fire Rebate fund. Unfortunately, there turned out only to be about half that much in the rebate fund, and city Chief Financial Officer Jim Brigham caught the error.
Hughes said Mississippi’s insurance operators pay into the fund each year, and the state fire coordinator apportions the funds to municipalities based on population, with Columbus receiving $130,000 to $140,000 each year. Departments must request those funds from the state and use them for an approved purpose.
The state fire coordinator’s error, Hughes believes, is that he did not account for the matching funds CFR withdrew for last year’s fire truck purchase.
Still, Hughes said, it “hurt to the pride” to ask the council to tap into reserves.
“We pride ourselves on being self-sufficient,” he told The Dispatch.
Gaskin said Hughes and CFR have nothing to be embarrassed about.
“They have been a leader in the city for grant support,” Gaskin said of CFR “… They have been a very good steward of their budget for many years now. For me, this was a good example of why it is so important to carry a capital reserve fund.”
Annexation hearing
Gaskin reported Wednesday the next hearing on the city’s annexation plan had been set for 9 a.m. Jan. 29. At that point, he expects Lowndes County Chancery Judge Rodney Faver to place a stay on the case until after the new city council term begins July 1.
Councilmen voted unanimously Tuesday to pause efforts to annex two areas south and east of the current boundaries while the city and county negotiate terms.
The council voted in March to annex the areas, and the county has pledged up to $50,000 in legal fees to help residents of the areas oppose it. The county has now agreed to discuss with the city possibly giving the balance of what it hasn’t already spent on legal fees – about $35,000 – to the city for CFR training.
CFR responds to emergencies in the proposed annexation areas as part of a mutual aid agreement with Lowndes County’s District 3 Volunteer Fire Department.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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