City Council Approves Purchase of Pre-Owned Fire Truck

The Chicago Heights Fire Department could have an addition to its fleet of fire trucks in the coming weeks, should the village of Tinley Park approve the sale of a 1994 Spartan Diamond Vista Pumper Fire Truck to Chicago Heights at its Tuesday, March 19 city council meeting.

Chicago Heights City Council members approved the purchase of the truck at its Monday, March 18 meeting. The truck will cost the city $50,000.

“This would kind of put a buffer in our fleet, in case anything goes wrong,” Chicago Heights Fire Chief James Angell said.

The truck, which has only 17,000 miles on it, comes with all the 'bells and whistles,' Angell said, stating the truck will come with almost all of the hoses, radios and ladders still on it. He added that the price of the truck is well under the cost of purchasing a new truck, which could cost the city between $325,000 and $375,000.

“It's a steal, so we'd like to grab this while we can,” he said.

The truck was appraised for between $35,000 and $50,000 by an outside agency, and Tinley Park and Chicago Heights agreed on the $50,000 price tag, Angell said. When questioned on if it would be possible to bring the price any lower, Angelll said that he tried to drop the price while negotiating with Tinley Park, but was unable to.