Dupage Policy Journal

At its Dec. 5 meeting,  Batavia City Council discussed the purchase option of a ladder truck for the fire department from a nearby municipality.

As its truck is currently down for repairs, the Batavia City Fire Department's ISO level 1 rating could be called into question if it doesn’t constantly have an operational truck in the city.

The city of St. Charles is offering Batavia a ladder truck from 1997 for $55,000. 

The mayor believes it would be a smart purchase for a really good price.

“I would suggest that ... it's certainly going to be Chief Hansen's call,” Mayor Jeffrey Schielke said. “But once we get ours back from ... being repaired, we can keep this and we can have one on each side. We can have a ladder truck on each side of the town, which should certainly help strengthen our ISO class one. And we've always got the backup. And so I would just strongly recommend that we do this for the price that we're getting. Saint Charles indicated to me, ... they're kind of giving us a real good deal on it with the idea that they'll get to use it back if something happens. And so we're just kind of sharing each other's good things here. So I would encourage this.”

There was some aldermen concern about the long-term costs of maintenance and insurance and whether those costs would get in the way of the city being able to purchase a new truck in the future. Other council members spoke to purchasing the truck with the potential to offload it in the future after the city gets back its regular truck. 

The council ultimately approved the purchase.

The council also voted in favor of extending the city’s fire department’s firefighter eligibility list to end Dec. 3, 2023.

Council member Sarah Vogelsinger was absent from the meeting.

The council will meet again for the last time in 2022 at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 19 at 100 North Island Ave.