Gillett OKs upgrades for police, fire department

With Alderman Jon Gildemeister absent, the Gillett City Council unanimously approved upgrades to equipment for both the Gillett Police Department and the Gillett Fire Department during its May 4 meeting.

The upgrades come in the form of a purchase of a 2002 Pierce Fire Truck for $195,000 and two new police radios at a cost of $8,880.46. both purchases will be made using federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

In regards to the firetruck, Fire Chief Kurt Hicks said that everything is moving forward with the purchase of the truck.

“The agreement was that the aerial/ladder truck (which dates back to 1998) that they have now will be put up for sale and the proceeds of that will go towards the loan on this particular truck,” added Alderperson Nanette Mohr.

Hicks indicated that he believes there is interest in someone purchasing that 1998 truck for $25,000.

“If that is going to pan out, that is excellent,” said Hicks. “If not, it will go on gov.com and we will see how we do on that.”

He added that the fire department has the new truck, has changed all of the tires, put a new grill on the front of the vehicle and are finishing upgrades on the truck, all of which Hicks said are included in that $195,000 price.

“Our firefighters are really excited about this,” said Hicks. “We want to thank the council for being progressive about this. Yeah, it is older, but I don’t think it warrants us to have a truck that is costing us more than what that is with our call rate. I really think that this is a truck is excellent for what we are doing, and I do feel that we will get 20-25 years out of this.”

Another upside to purchasing the Pierce truck is that it can be easily serviced in Appleton, said Hicks.

The Gillett Police Department was the next benefactor of the council’s decisions, as it approved the purchase of two new radios.

“Basically the radios that we utilize now are quite antiquated — 20-30 years old,” said Police Chief Shane Breitenbach. “They work, but when they break, parts are no longer available to fix them.”

He added that Motorola no longer offers software updates for the old radios.

“If something was to happen software-wise inside of the radios, they can’t fix them anymore,” said Breitenbach.

Similar to the fire tuck, Breitenbach said that these new radios will probably be used for 20-30 years.

“Those radios — that is our lifeline,” said Breitenbach. “Of all of the tools that we carry on a daily basis, that is number one, because that is going to bring the help, so it is critical that we have that dependable.”

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com