Missoula Fire Dept. Down to One Ladder Truck, a "Dangerous Game" says Councilman

The Missoula Fire Department normally has two ladder trucks to service the city, but is down to just one after a ladder truck from 1990 was taken out of service last week because of a structural flaw. Missoula City Council member Adam Hertz says a replacement is on the way, after the council approved an emergency purchase.

"There was the potential that we could be without a ladder truck if we didn't make the emergency purchase," Hertz said. "The city fire department was lucky to find a ladder truck that was coming out of production that hadn't been sold yet, which is rare, because generally they are pre-ordered and take about a year to finish. So, we were lucky enough to find one and were able to commit to purchasing it."

The ladder truck will cost the city nearly one million dollars, a cost that hertz says should have been planned for.

"We live in a city where we have priorities like police and fire that get unfunded or underfunded," Hertz said. "At the same time, we have a mayor and city council that is willing to gamble in excess of a million dollars on condemning Mountain Water and paying for various luxuries like sidewalks on every street when we have various issues that we know of, like a fire truck that is 24 years old. I think the city council has been playing a very dangerous game.

The funding for the ladder truck will come out of reserves in the short term and is likely to be bonded. Hertz says Missoula's capital improvement program which could be used for funding situations like this, is currently weighed down with over 90 percent of its value going toward debt payments.

Mayor John Engen and other council members had hoped that the funding for such expenditures would come through a Law and Justice Special Tax District that was protested by Missoula Property owners.

Another special tax district is expected to be proposed next spring.