Pickett County will use some $420,000 in Community Development Block Grant money to purchase a tanker truck for the county’s volunteer fire department.
A tanker truck can be used to transport large amounts of water to a fire scene. County Executive Stephen Bilbrey said the county’s fire department has pumper trucks throughout the county, but did not have a tanker truck until now. Bilbrey said that hurt the fire department’s ISO rating.
“One thing we got nicked on was not having a tanker truck to where we could fill it and use it on scene, to you know, transfer water from a tanker to our pumper trucks,” Bilbrey said. “And so that truck can just run back and forth to a fire hydrant.”
Bilbrey said not only will the tanker truck improve the fire department’s ISO rating, but also improve the fire response county-wide. Bilbrey said the cost had kept the county for purchasing a pumper earlier.
“They are very, very expensive, and I know they have looked at that through the years, and of course, we got a volunteer fire department, but they are really expensive,” Bilbrey said. “And without this grant, we couldn’t purchase one now.”
Bilbrey thanked Representative Kelly Keisling and Senator Ken Yager for helping Pickett County receive the grant. Bilbrey said he was excited to receive the grant, as the county would not have to use local tax dollars to purchase the truck.
“Pickett County is the smallest county in the state of Tennessee, and so we don’t have a huge tax base in Pickett County, and so without the CDBG grant funding, I mean, it would be almost impossible to be able to purchase a truck of this magnitude.”
Bilbrey said the county will put up an estimated $42,000 as part of the matching cost for the grant. Bilbrey said the county could purchase a brand-new or a used tanker truck. Bilbrey said the county will have to find one within the county’s price range.
Bilbrey said he expects to receive the tanker truck within the next 12 to 18 months.