Gainesville Fire Chief gives monthly report, bids awarded

Gainesville Fire Chief Kevin Piland reported that the department had 23 calls last month (June), including 16 medical calls, one structure fire, four motor vehicle crashes and two brush fires. 

Piland said the department also conducted five fire safety inspections, and responded to four special detail calls. 

Ladder truck inspection, grease gun

Piland said the VFD’s ladder inspection was performed by Structural Technologies last month, and everything passed “except some things on the... truck’s ladder,” Piland told the city council. “There are things that need to be fixed to complete the certification. The ladder needed cleaned, lubricated [and] the waterways lubricated. [There is] leaking lift cylinder seals and rust on the ladder.”

“Do we not lubricate the ladder throughout the year?” City Councilwoman Lana Bushong asked Piland. 

“We should. It’s lack of maintenance, but right now, we don’t even have a grease gun that size. It takes a larger sized one. We have the smaller ones, but we just don’t have the bigger sized one we’d need to do that. So, that’s something else I need to ask if everyone is OK with me purchasing,” Piland said. “It takes a food-grade grease that we use that’s waterproof. So we’d need to get the grease gun and what to go in it.”

The council asked how much the grease gun would cost, and he said he thought it would be less than $100. The council told him to go ahead and buy it. 

VFD’s ladder truck tires

Piland presented three bids for the VFD’s rear ladder truck tires, and he said he is working on trying to obtain bids for the front tires, which has been difficult due to the ladder truck’s tire size and split rims. 

“Are we going to have to put some kind of different rims on the front of them?” Mayor Gail Reich asked. 

“We may need to,” Piland said. “I found a set of front tires, but they were $2,300 a piece. We can buy rims and a different sized tire for less than that. So, I’m still working on that.”

“We need to get rid of those split rims that nobody wants to work with,” Mayor Reich said. 

The bids presented for the three back tires (all the same brand and tire as the other new tire the VFD already has) came in at these prices:

• 160 Pit Stop, Gainesville: $1,588.50

• Plumlee Tire, Mountain Home, Arkansas: $1,731

• Ava Tire, Ava: $1,820

“160 is the cheapest,” Piland said. 

“Well, I like to keep it local anyway, if we can,” Bushong added. 

The council voted unanimously to accept the low bid from Gainesville’s 160 Pit Stop. 

Flooding at firehouse

Piland said there was some flooding that occurred last month at the fire house, but it seems to be fixed. He thanked City Maintenance Supervisor Mike Davis and his workers for helping fix the issues. 

Firehouse propane

At last month’s meeting, Piland told the council that the fire department’s propane tank was 250 gallons, which is too small for its needs. He said West Plains Propane attempted to outfit the tank with automatic reader recently so it could be filled as needed, but the company said the tank is too old for the equipment. He said the firehouse ran out of propane twice last year. It was noted that the city’s other tank at City Hall is on auto-fill through MFA. The council asked Piland to check if MFA has equipment that would work with the old tank for auto-fill or if they could rent a 500-gallon tank from them.

The council also discussed pre-buy prices at last month’s meeting, explaining that MFA’s pre-buy was quoted at $1.799, and West Plains Propane (Gainesville location) had pre-buy at $1.699 per gallon. The council voted to approve the purchase of $3,000 gallons from MFA for City Hall. 

Piland gave an update at this month’s meeting, saying the firehouse’s propane tank is currently shut off and unhooked until the council decided whether to use the old propane tank or a new tank. 

Clerk Lisa Goodnight said that MFA told her they could put in a 500 gallon tank and would match the $1.699 price per gallon of their competitor. They said they also wouldn’t charge a fee to lease or monitor the tank. She said West Plains Propane said they could offer a 500 gallon tank with a lease fee of $75, but they would recommend a 330 gallon tank at a $60 lease fee. The tank monitoring is free if the city uses the West Plains Propane leased tank. The council voted unanimously to have MFA Propane put a tank in with the automatic monitor.