Kincardine Council has decided it wants more information before allowing the fire department to purchase a new pumper truck.
375 thousand dollars have been budgeted to replaced the 20 year-old truck, but the estimated cost has now increased.
The fire chief wants to be able to negotiate with a truck supplier for a purchase price up to nearly 480 thousand dollars.
The reason is that firefighting equipment is mostly made in the US, and the Canadian dollar has lost value recently.
The fire department wants to replace the vehicle in order to maintain Kincardine’s strong rating with the Insurance Underwriters Association.
That organization determines property insurance rates based on local risks.
They consider municipalities with older firefighting equipment to be at a higher risk, meaning premiums for policy holders go up.
Council is not convinced nearly 480 thousand dollars should be spent right away.
They’ve asked for more information on the insurance underwriting situation and also believe the price could go down in a few months, depending on economic and political factors.
Mayor Larry Kraemer says there wasn’t enough information presented to make a half a million dollar decision.
Fire Chief Jamie MacKinnon respects what council decided.
He says if council thinks it’s better to wait, he supports that.
MacKinnon says Kincardine has the highest insurance rating a municipality with a volunteer fire department can get, and aging equipment could change that, affecting local property insurance costs.
Kraemer says a more in-depth analysis is needed of the insurance issues to see how they could affect the municipality and it’s individual ratepayers.
Kincardine has one other truck that it also wants to replace next year.
The municipality also has a 1979 pumper that it uses as for backup.
Council will take another look at purchasing a new fire truck in January.
