By Steve Ramirez
Las Cruces Sun-News
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Buying two new pumper fire trucks won’t necessarily improve Las Cruces’ Insurance Services Office rating, but it will bring the peace of mind of enhanced public safety to many residents.
“I’d rather spend this kind of money on things that I know will protect me than on all the lawsuits and other wastes of money that city government always messes with,” said Johnny Orantia, a Las Cruces construction worker, about the $938,875 state loan approved Monday by City Council to buy two new 500-gallon pumper fire trucks. “We ain’t wasting money when we spend it on the necessities, like police and fire protection. I’m all for police and fire having the equipment they need to properly do their jobs. If this is going to improve response time or the reliability of the equipment they use then I’ve got nothing to argue about.”
Fire Chief Travis Brown said the loan and purchase of the two new firetrucks comes at a good time.
“With the end of the year approaching for the latest models, this is a good time to take advantage of the prices for those new trucks,” Brown said. “We’ll save between $25,000 to $30,000 per unit by buying them now rather than getting them later.”
In December, the Las Cruces Fire Department replaced pumper trucks at station No. 5, off of Porter Road, and at station No. 6, at the intersection of Northrise Drive and Roadrunner Parkway. Brown pointed out the city had to spend about $2 million in 2001 to replace six firefighting vehicles at once.
“We’ve come up with a new schedule where, hopefully, the city won’t be in that kind of situation again of having to spend so much money to replace vehicles all at once.”
The new fire trucks will replace the oldest ones the city uses, as reserve pumpers. Each of those vehicles has more than 140,000 miles.
“This will upgrade our frontline firefighting apparatus, and it will also upgrade our reserve apparatus,” Brown said. “We use our reserve apparatus on fairly regular basis.”
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