Radford City Council votes to sell surplus vehicles; Fire engine sale put on hold

By WILLIAM PAINE

Patriot Publishing

The Radford City Council passed several ordinances at this week’s meeting. All council members were in attendance, including Jesse Foster, who was not present but attended the meeting via Zoom.

As part of the New Business agenda, city council voted to sell several surplus vehicles owned by the city. The list of surplus vehicles included a pumper truck (fire engine), a Pontiac Bonneville, a Volkswagen Jetta, a Ford Explorer, a police Charger, several Crown Victoria vehicles and an old street sweeper that had been recently replaced.

“My only question would be, for the pumper engine, have we deemed it completely not workable?” Councilman Seth Gillespie inquired.

“The engine has some plumbing issue that we have tried to fix over the years that just keeps recurring and it does leak and it is a 31-year-old vehicle,” said Fire Chief Rodney Haywood. “The engine does leak oil and it’s in the shop 3 or 4 times a year for a couple of weeks each time. The age of equipment makes it hard to find parts. They get obsolete.”

Mayor Horton asked the chief what it would cost to “fix everything and have it operate perfectly” but this cost estimate was not readily available.

Council voted to go forward with the sale of surplus vehicles with the exception of the fire truck. Council requested an estimate for the complete repair of the pumper truck to be submitted at the next meeting. This will likely affect their decision to sell it or repair the old fire engine.

This discussion led into the Fire Truck Lease Purchase Agreement item on the agenda. A new pumper truck (fire engine) was ordered by Radford City Council in 2022. The cost of this fire truck is now $872,805.

“It’s been three years on the assembly line,” said City Manager Todd Meredith. “It’s now ready for delivery, possibly within the next 15 days. We made the request to see if we can cancel the order or delay the order. We cannot. It’s a custom truck. It’s been made specifically for Radford … we have to have financing and/or the cash on hand to pay for the truck within 15 days of it shipping. If it ships this week, we have 15 days to have financing in place or the money to write a check for it …We’ve negotiated the interest rate down from 4.86 to 4.5% interest. We’ve talked to our consultants, and they’ve recommended that we accept this financing solution.”

Councilman Seth Gillespie asked if the city could potentially sell the fire truck after its delivery or would the City of Radford need to pay back the $859,000 to the state.

Meredith did not think the city would have to pay back the state in those circumstances.

“If we buy a fire truck and then sell a fire truck, could we put that money … to repay the general fund? Asked Mayor David Horton. “We’ve got to buy the fire truck. Once it gets here, that will be the question. Do we have options? Do we try to repair the old fire truck?”

Councilmembers Seth Gillespie and Kelly Artrip asked City Manager Meredith to provide a payment schedule for the new fire engine before voting on the matter at their next meeting.

With that, City Council voted to allow Meredith to proceed with the fire truck lease purchase agreement.

“All we’re doing tonight is authorizing you continue to move forward to try to arrange it,” said Horton. “Then we have to approve it at the meeting on the 27^th.  We’re not locking ourselves into anything by saying we’re authorizing you (Meredith) to move forward. Once you bring it to us, then we’re actually making a decision.”

After the meeting, Meredith said that the city could refuse to take the fire engine but the contract states that the city would then pay for 1/3 of the cost of the build or $290,935. Council is due to decide about the old fire truck in need of repair and the one that will be delivered at their next meeting this month.

Radford City Council voted to appropriate $701,661 towards the purchase of the West Commerce Park Transformer. The total cost of this project is $3.5 million and the city needs to provide $615,000 in matching funds. The city’s purchase of the West Commerce Park property for $260,000 also goes towards the city’s matching fund requirement. The city is building an electric utility substation with these matching funds, while the state monies will go towards preparing the site for incoming businesses.

“This is a lot of money, but this can transform our prospects as a city,” said councilman Gillespie. “I think that to be able to provide the function and the capabilities that we need to be all it can be, we have to do this.”

Council allocated $15,092 to pay for its electronic summons. These funds are collected through court ordered fines and remitted to the city. Localities can impose a $5 court assessment fee in criminal and traffic cases to support the implementation and maintenance of electronic summons e ticket systems.

Additionally, Council passed a temporary construction easement for Norfolk Southern as they build the layover facility for the Amtrak service. This construction will affect the right of way of Madison Street between the Dedmon Center and its upper lot.

Council voted to allow Janet Jones of the Treasurer’s office, to establish and maintain a License Agency for the DMV in the City of Radford.

Council voted to change the Social Services Holiday Schedule Policy.

“This is a new policy of trying to observe all holidays recognized as legal in addition to other holidays declared by the governor,” said Mayor Horton.

Council voted to change the policy at the previous meeting but has since changed some of the wording of the declaration.

Radford City Council voted to appoint Samual Hubbard III to the Recreation Commission. Hubbard will be replacing his recently deceased father on the commission.

Council voted to appoint the Radford Police Chief Jerry Holdaway to the New River Valley Criminal Justice Board. He will replace councilwoman Jesse Foster, at her request, on this board.

City Manager Todd Meredith announced a new initiative to save money whenever possible.

“We’re going to come up with a good system to surplus anything that we can, even things that that may have been just sort of thrown out in the past,” said Meredith. “We’re trying to capture as much value as we can out of equipment, even going down to smaller pieces of equipment. Maybe we surplus keyboards for computers, get a few dollars out of them.”

Councilman Seth Gillespie also spoke of saving money where possible.

“I know we did speak quite a bit about the fire truck and things we’re trying to do. I will say that the one thing we were able to do was cancel the digger truck at an expense of $350,000 …  We cannot be taking on this kind of debt and making these payments. It’s just too tight right now. So, I do appreciate you being able to do that.”

According to City Manager Todd Meredith, Radford has received $816,882.89 in fire aid from the state, noting that these funds could be used for eligible fire related expenses. He added, “To preserve cash flow for these eligible uses, the City is financing the full cost of the Fire Truck. The cost of the fire truck is $872,805.”

It remains unclear as to how much money remains in the account dedicated to the Radford Fire Department and why funds are not readily available from that account to pay for the cost of the new fire truck.