BREWER – The City Council voted 4-1 Monday night to buy a new rescue pumper firetruck, but not before debating the cost at length.

In the final analysis, however, the council majority agreed that to put off the purchase would put the public and the city’s firefighters at risk, given the age and condition of the truck it would replace.

At issue were the proposed lease and purchase of a heavy-duty, custom-built 2002 Pierce Dash rescue pumper with a 2,000-gallon-per-minute pumping capacity.

The Pierce Dash would replace a 1964 Mack pumper-ladder truck that is rusting, becoming increasingly costly to maintain and has a negative electrical ground that can’t accommodate modern communication radios, said Fire Chief Richard Bronson. The Fire Department would retain its 1990 Pierce pumper. Bronson said that with the new rescue pumper, the city’s firefighting fleet would be up-to-date for “a solid decade, maybe 15 years.”

The plan is to pay for the truck through a lease-purchase plan offered by the Tatonka Capital Corp., which will allow the city to spread the cost, which could be up to $376,000, over seven years at an annual interest rate of 4.87 percent.

That should work out to a little more than $64,000 a year, according to Finance Director Karen McVey. However, the financing agreement carries no penalty for early payment, should the city decide to go that route. The city’s other option was to seek a bond for the entire amount, but that likely would have meant deferring the purchase until the city prepares its next bond package.

Councilor Larry Doughty cast the sole opposing vote, citing the cost and the fact that the city spent a little less than $500,000 for a new aerial ladder truck just two years ago.

“I don’t care what comes – hell or high water – but I’m not supporting a tax increase next year,” Doughty said, noting that Brewer property taxes increased this year and that numerous property owners also underwent a revaluation this spring, which further raised their tax bills.

As Doughty saw it, the proposed purchase was another argument for the regionalization of fire, police and other municipal services. One aspect of that concept is to reduce the need to duplicate costly equipment purchases through sharing.

Councilor Manley DeBeck Jr. was among several councilors at the meeting who were uncomfortable with relying on a 37-year-old pumper that he’d seen fail during a training burn on outer Wilson Street. In a controlled situation, that proved a nuisance. During a real fire situation, such a malfunction could result in death. He noted that the city was in its predicament because previous city administrations had not replaced fire equipment regularly.

City Manager Stephen Bost agreed. He said he, too, “agonized” over the cost but decided to support the purchase after discussing the equipment situation at length with Bronson and his firefighters. He added that if a fire happened at his home, he would want the best equipment to respond. “That’s the standard that I apply in a decision like this.”

Doughty also was irked that the purchase was driven, in part, by the Fire Department’s goal of reducing the city’s Insurance Service Office rating, which would translate into property insurance cost reductions for many of the community’s property owners. ISO inspections, on which ratings are based, usually are conducted every 15 years in cities the size of Brewer. The last inspection, according to Bronson, was in 1988.

“The major concern is that we’re being manipulated by the ISO,” Doughty said.