By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
With the City of Burlington hiring its first full-time fire chief earlier this year, the budget for the fire department has expanded.
So when a requested command vehicle and communications equipment purchase came up before the City Council Tuesday night, at least one council member wanted to know where the money was coming from.
“We can always justify why we buy things,” said Alderman Tom Vos. “But ultimately, we have to justify how we pay for them.”
By Vos’ calculation and including the salary for new Fire Chief Perry Howard, the department’s budget has increased by about $100,000 this year.
But while that number wasn’t refuted by Mayor Bob Miller, the equipment replacement fund is paying for the new command vehicle – estimated at about $25,500 dollars from Miller Motors – and the communications equipment (another $12,000).
Howard requested the purchases after reviewing the department when he stepped into the chief position. His reasoning is that the command vehicle used at the Echo Lake Foods fire had to come in from Racine – about a 45-minute drive – and is only available for large-scale incidents.
“This vehicle will be used as incident command in the system,” Howard explained. It will track where firefighters and other personnel are, as well as safety issues.
Both purchases were unanimously approved – including Vos’s vote. But he did want to know how it would impact taxes.
“It has to have some sort of impact on the tax base,” Vos said.
In other action Tuesday night, the council unanimously passed a resolution for Halloween trick or treating to be from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Oct. 31.
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