By Staff
Jason Cannon, Franklin County Times
The Russellville City Council voted Monday night to designate the city's 1998 fire truck as surplus, beginning the process that would sell the truck to the Belgreen Fire Department for $80,000.
Russellville Fire Chief Joe Mansell said the department has out-grown the truck, which has a 500-gallon water capacity and can pump at a rate of 1250 gallons per minute.
"It's got a three-man cab, and most of the time we've got a need to send more than three men out on a call," he said.
While the way has been paved for the truck's sale, Mansell added that it could be several months before the transaction is finalized. He added it could take almost a year to have a fire truck built to the department's specifications.
"You can get a demo model within a few weeks," he said. "But right now, it could take about 300 days to have the truck built. What we'll do is hang on to the truck until we get a demo or something else we can put in service to replace it, so the people of Russellville will still be protected."
In other business, the council granted permission to John Seal, a Boy Scout with Troop 39, to build and place bat houses around City Lake and Sloss Lake as his Eagle Scout project. The council thanked Seal for his efforts, which Seal said would help control the insect population around both areas.