Two County Council committees approved plans Tuesday to purchase 71 fire trucks, ambulances, ladder trucks and other specialized equipment this year to replace aging vehicles in the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service fleet.
The Public Safety and Management and Fiscal Policy committees unanimously recommended that the council approve the supplemental appropriation, as the county faces growing fire responsibilities in the next three years.
“We also have a number of fire stations opening up,” said Public Safety Committee Chairman Phil Andrews, D-District 3.
The county’s long-range spending plans include money for 50 new vehicles by 2011.
The replacement vehicles are needed to address a backlog of old and high-mileage vehicles in the existing fleet, council staff said. The appropriation would be funded by short-term financing called Certificates of Participation paid off over 10 years.
In 2004, the county executive’s office drafted a comprehensive plan to prevent this kind of backlog from building up in the future.
