Tornado-stricken city in debt for fire truck

Officials raising funds to make payments on newest vehicle

? There’s little that Mark Peters, mayor of this tornado-ravaged town, isn’t worried about these days. Downtown lies in rubble. Phones are still out. Few businesses are left to generate tax revenues for recovery.

Now Peters adds this worry: Pierce City cannot cover payments on its main fire truck.

“I’m not sure the repo man will come tow the fire truck away, but we need a financial angel — or a whole bunch of angels,” the mayor said Monday.

Almost three years ago, city voters overwhelmingly approved selling bonds to raise the $146,000 cost of a new pumper, which replaced a 1965 fire truck. The city needs about $24,000 a year through 2010 to pay for the truck, and sales tax receipts were being used to make the payments.

The truck’s arrival made a bottom-line difference in Pierce City; the improved fire protection reduced homeowners’ insurance premiums by hundreds of dollars per year.

A federal grant could rebuild the flattened firehouse — the new truck was out with its siren blaring May 4 to alert townspeople about the tornado bearing down on Pierce City — but city officials say they’ve been told there is no outside government money to cover bond payments on a rig that’s still rolling.

Bond owners aren’t looking for the truck keys, at least not yet. But Peters said the bond deal obligated the city to tap whatever resources it has to repay them — this as it rebuilds a water and sewer system, replaces toppled street lights and tallies still-uncounted costs of cleaning up.

A city fund to accept donations for a fire truck bailout has already collected about $2,600, said City Clerk Julie Johnson.

Students from Exeter — about 15 miles away and not covered by the department’s protection — delivered $400 raised in their town. Other smaller donations have arrived from as far away as New York and California.

‘We felt so secure’

Lucy McCauley, 69, whose home was destroyed by the tornado, was among Pierce City’s voters who supported buying the truck, and she fretted Monday about how the community would make the payments.

“When that big red truck arrived, we were so proud, and we felt so secure. If any place needs to hold onto something that makes us feel secure, it’s Pierce City, after all we’ve been through,” she said.

David Jones, right, a volunteer firefighter in Pierce City, Mo., talks with fire chief Ed Schiska, about watching the tornado come directly at him while driving the town's new fire truck during the storms that destroyed nearly the entire downtown of the small city. The truck was bought on the hopes of future sales tax revenue; however, with the entire commercial district destroyed from the storms, the income from sales tax will be minimal, and Pierce City may lose its pumper truck.

Using proceeds from long-term bonds to buy fire trucks is a common practice because the useful life of a fire truck can exceed 20 years, said Marty Matthews, owner of Jon’s Mid-America Fire Apparatus in Rogersville. His company sold the truck to Pierce City.

“That truck could last Pierce City perhaps 30 years, because they don’t have the frequent calls of an urban department and they treat the truck like a baby, with great care,” he said.

Business is business

Matthews said that in more than 40 years of selling fire trucks, he knew of just one repossession because of a default in payments, and that was because of theft from a local government in Pennsylvania. But business is business and promises must be kept.

Send donations to the Fire Truck Fund, c/o Pierce City City Hall, 112 E. Commercial St., Pierce City, MO 65723.

“So Pierce City is in a really bad spot on this, and these are good, hardworking folks just caught in a cash-flow jam,” Matthews said.

Truck damage

Volunteer firefighter David Jones, 29, had jumped into the new rig the night of May 4 to drive a pre-designated route alerting townspeople to take cover. He made the circuit twice, then saw a transformer explode and roof shingles flying as the twister approached from the west.

There wasn’t time to move the truck, and no adequate cover for it anyway. So Jones gripped the steering wheel and held on as tree limbs crashed against the cab.

“It all went through in less than a minute, and then I saw the damage and used my radio to call for help. I told them to send all the resources they could to Pierce City,” said Jones, whose father and four brothers all serve as volunteer firefighters.

Matthews tentatively estimated damage to Pierce City’s truck at $15,000, which will likely be covered by insurance. His company will loan a used pumper to the community while it makes repairs.

“It’s hard to explain to folks in big cities with huge fire departments the sense of security we get from just one modern fire truck,” said Ed Schiska, chief of Pierce City’s all-volunteer fire department. “Fire equipment is terribly expensive to maintain, and it’s a huge expense for a small city.”