With Springfield’s city council ready to vote on a final budget Tuesday night, a big headline is the fact that some aldermen believe fire engines and fire trucks should hold a higher priority than building fire stations. Instead of four houses, the number could be one or two, in favor of freshening the fleet.
A recent consultant’s report recommended fifteen years be the maximum life for the fire vehicles.
“We will reallocate $2 million of the firehouse money,” said city budget director Bill McCarty. “We’ll take $2 million more from ARPA, and we’ll do $2 million of a loan I planned from subsequent years. $6.2 million total by the time you buy them and outfit them.”
The bottom line, even in these relatively flush times, is that you can’t do everything at once.