Fire chief asks for second 100-foot ladder truck

• April
• 29

5:58 am Trucks

Watsonville Fire Chief Mark Bisbee wants the city to buy a second fire truck with a 100-foot aerial ladder to provide more depth to the fire department’s fleet.

It’s up to the City Council at its meeting tonight to approve spending up to $225,000 in community development block grant money for the used truck.

It’s a deal the city shouldn’t refuse, Bisbee said.

“We’ve been looking for two years, and this combination of having redevelopment money and an available truck is huge,” he said.

“This month, two rare opportunities came into alignment,” Bisbee wrote in a staff report, “notification by the Redevelopment Agency that funds were available coupled with the availability of a 100-foot aerial ladder truck that, remarkably, has the same features as our current ladder truck.”

After conducting research, the truck that Bisbee is looking at now is a 1992 Pierce brand ladder truck that he thinks is available within the city’s $225,000 budget. New 100-foot ladder trucks can cost in the neighborhood of $800,000 to $900,000, he noted.