Sexsmith Town Council is looking to purchase a new rescue truck for the Sexsmith Fire Department. While the idea for the new truck was brought up by the fire chief at the last council meeting, Mayor Kate Potter says it was already on council’s radar.
“It was slated on our asset management for our current one to be replaced in two years. At the last council meeting we had a request from the fire department because they found a demo unit that was much cheaper then what our original estimates had been.”
Potter says this rescue vehicle is an important piece of equipment for the department, especially in this area.
“That’s sort of the vehicle that brings often times people [and] extra supplies, it’s a command post, it’s a place for firefighters to warm up if they’re out on an 8-hour call in minus 35 which happens semi-regularly out here.”
She estimates that the demo model came in at around $150,000 cheaper than the town’s original estimate for the vehicle. Despite that, she says they still needed to put out a request for proposal which will allow other interested parties to offer a rescue truck unit of similar quality.
“We had a number of other parties come back and say we’re interested in putting forward a proposal. With that it means we go to a full request for proposal where we put it out to everyone and we say ‘okay, give us your best and then we’ll look and consider if there’s a better deal out there.'”
Submissions for the RFP will be collected for the next four to six weeks. Potter is hoping to have a decision made on the best deal by Christmas.