Rison Council Approves $80,000 To Buy Used Truck for Fire Dept.

RISON - The Rison City Council approved spending up to $80,000 to buy a used fire truck for the Rison Fire Department during a special called council meeting last Thursday.The meeting came just two days after the city council learned from Fire Chief Alan Parnell and Keden Shrum of the Rison Fire Department during its regular meeting on April 7 that the department’s secondary fire truck was close to becoming inoperable. The meeting was held after the city council’s finance committee, consisting of council members Kristy Lowery and Bruce Grubb, met with Mayor Charles Roberts to see what money the city could come up with. Parnell had given the city council a range for $60,000 to $75,000 during its April 7 meeting. The committee found the city could go beyond that.After a brief discussion, Grubb made a motion to allow up to $80,000 be allotted for buying a used fire truck and also allow the fire department to sell its two older fire trucks and the money from those sales go back into the fire department. All six council members approved the motion. “We can work with that for sure,” Parnell told the council during last Thursday’s meeting.Shrum explained that the he and Parnell had been looking for used fire trucks through a national website where larger fire departments around the country offer their equipment to smaller departments. Shrum said some of the trucks listed on the site had has few as 19,000 miles on them.It was pointed out during the discussions that the Rison Fire Department is limited on what it can buy since the fire station can only accept a certain size truck.During the April 7 council meeting, Parnell said the fire department is down to two pumper trucks. The secondary pumper truck, referred to as Engine 2, is 39 years old. Parnell said the air pump is weak on the truck and it takes it about 10 minutes to build up enough pressure to release the brakes and allow the truck to respond ...