Sturtevant Will Vote on 2012 South Shore Fire Purchases

The Sturtevant Village Board will vote on recommendations for 2012 South Shore Fire Department purchases from the joint Fire/EMS Oversight Committee at the Village Board meeting on July 19.

At the July 12 Committee Meeting, Trustee Chris Wright, head of the Public Safety and Health Committee, turned the floor over to Village Administrator Mark Janiuk who sits on the committee. He explained that the oversight committee recommended 2012 expenditures include defibrillators and a new command staff car even though the Village Board had earlier approved the purchase of defibrillators and a thermo-imaging machine.

"The danger of not buying the command car now is that it not only becomes costly to keep maintaining it, but then South Shore will need a new ambulance in 2013 so you could be looking at buying two expensive vehicles in one year," he said.

Trustee John Johnson agreed, saying it's better to spread out vehicle purchases for less of a hit when other large vehicles will be needed.

"Prices only go up," he noted.

But Trustee Chris Larsen wants to keep spending down as much as possible.

"I'm going to stick with our original decision of defibrillators and the thermal imaging," he said.