County to seek consent for most fire-department purchases; lawn equipment pulled for separate vote

At the Oct. 2 work session, Carroll County Fire Chief Dave Wade presented multiple equipment and supply requests and asked commissioners to approve purchases to replace worn day-room furniture, replace remote speaker microphones for portable radios, finish a mattress replacement program, purchase lawn equipment, acquire a trailer to move equipment and replace hoses on several apparatus.

Wade told commissioners that the department wants to replace day-room furniture with the same theater-style recliners used in the new Billerica station and to standardize mattresses countywide (the mattress replacement was started last year and this request completes it). He said the department sought multiple quotes for many items and had limited vendor responses in one case (fire-hose replacement had a single returned quote).

Wade described the remote speaker microphones as vital for safety and said newer models are better suited to high temperatures and inclement weather. The total requested for the hose replacement was $100,500 and Wade said that amount would come from the county's 21 SPLOST funds.

Commissioner Bailey asked to remove the lawn-equipment request from the consent agenda and have it considered separately because of an anticipated abstention. Commissioners agreed to put items 1 (day-room furniture), 2 (remote speaker microphones), 3 (mattress replacement completion), 5 (trailer) and 6 (fire-hose replacement) on the Oct. 7 consent agenda and to bring item 4 (lawn equipment: mower, weed eater, edger, hedge trimmer) to a separate vote Tuesday night.