RISON - The Rison City Council will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 9, to see what money the city can provide to buy a used fire truck to replace a secondary truck that is close to failing.Chief Alan Parnell and Keden Shrum of the Rison Fire Department addressed the Rison City Council about the need for another truck during its regular monthly meeting Tuesday night.Parnell explained that the department’s secondary pumper truck, known as Engine 2, is 39 years old and is no longer functioning properly. The truck backs up the primary pumper truck for fires within the city limits, but Parnell said it can take up to 10 minutes to build up enough air pressure to release the brakes to allow the truck to respond.Efforts to find someone to repair Engine 2 have been fruitless, and Parnell told the council that the truck is on the verge of not being able to function at all and that would leave the city with just one fire truck.Mayor Charles Roberts said he has been searching for grant money for about a year to help the city buy a new pumper truck, but none of those avenues have been successful so far. He said part of the problem is that, based on the last census, the city’s Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) population has fallen below 50 percent, which makes Rison ineligible for several grants. Roberts said a new truck can cost between $405,000 to $430,000.Parnell said he understood the issues with finding a grant to buy a new truck, so he was asking the city council to consider buying a used one to address the matter immediately.Shrum said there is an online website that lists used fire trucks from larger cities across the country. Often times, those trucks will have very few miles on them, pointing out that one currently being listed has about 19,000 miles on it. He said trucks are constantly being posted and pulled from the website as smaller fire departments are quick to buy them.Parnell said he woul...
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