The Board of Commissioners approved the final purchase for a new fire engine for the Butts County Fire Department at this week’s BOC meeting and the new truck has been received and put into service. This is the first of two new fire engines that were approved by voter referendum in 2011 to be paid for by Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax (SPLOST) which is halfway through its current cycle. The purchase price of $283,000.00 netted the department a 2016 E-One Pumper, which the County received at a considerable discount due to the engine being a demonstrator model. The new apparatus arrived with just over 1000 miles on the odometer and comes with its full warranty and some equipment that would normally have to be purchased separately.

“This is the first new fire engine the County has purchased since 2001” said Chief Mike Wilson who heads the department. “That particular truck was assigned to the Worthville station following that station being given over to the County”.

The average life expectancy of a fire engine varies depending on the amount of use it gets but most front line units with a call load volume the size our county generates are usually retired from front line service after 20 years. These engines then make good backup trucks that can put into service in the event of a breakdown, if a truck is out of service for maintenance or to add to the units available during a disaster. Prior to the 2001 model, the County purchased two new engines in 1996 for the stations on Halls Bridge Road and Colwell Road, both of which were constructed at that time. Cowell Road is slated for the next new truck, which is the one that runs the majority of calls on Interstate 75.

The new fire engine, which is assigned currently to the Indian Springs Fire Station didn’t have long to wait on its first fire call. Ten minutes after the truck had received final clearance and put into active service, it was dispatched to a woods fire on Sandy Creek Church Road where it performed “exceptionally” according to Chief Wilson.

SPLOST is used to pay for items that otherwise would have to be purchased from other funding sources, some of which includes property tax. Because of SPLOST, the new engine is completely paid for and by pennies earned on sales and not other taxes. Currently 53% of all sales tax in Butts County comes from the sale of gasoline and diesel fuel, most of it from Exit 201 on I-75 by people stopping off to get fuel on their way north and south. SPLOST has been used to build two of the County’s fire stations, as well as purchase all fire engines used by the County over the past twenty years.