By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
The Brandon Fire Department will be purchasing a new pumper truck and tanker truck this year, with the unanimous approval of the purchase from the township board of trustees.
“We started the process several months ago,” said Fire Chief David Kwapis. “We spent that time writing up specs, looking at trucks, visiting different trucks, different departments. We finally came down to a truck, both of these trucks, that is going to serve Brandon Township for the next 25 years.”
The pumper will hold 1,000 gallons of water, as well as all of the fire department equipment with seating for four. The tanker will hold 2,000 gallons of water and some equipment, the same size as the tanker that the department will be replacing.
“I will say when we first started out, it was kind of like kids in the candy store,” said Kwapis. “We wanted everything. The trucks, if we’d have bought at that stage, we would have been at about $1.5 million dollars. That was crazy.”
The cost for the two vehicles is around $1.01 million from the general fund, and both vehicles should be ready within 10-12 months.