The Augusta Commission voted at its Oct. 4 meeting to send Augusta Fire Chief Antonio Burden’s request for nearly $7 million in funding back to the Public Safety Committee for more discussion.
Burden appeared before the Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, Sept. 27 and asked for $6,761,618 for needed equipment purchases. According to Burden, funding for the needed items were not included in the special purpose local-option sales tax 8.
Normally, new fire equipment is paid for with SPLOST funds.
The request from Burden was for the city to dip into its remaining American Rescue Plan funding. According to interim City Administrator Takiyah Douse, only roughly $8 million is left of that funding.
According to Burden, the department needs to purchase seven support vehicles, a pumper engine and an aerial ladder truck. Next year, the city will need to replace nine light vehicles, one pumper engine, one tiller ladder truck, one tender and one ambulance.
Burden told the committee that the fire department’s fleet is aging and that most fire trucks and heavy support vehicles only last for 10 years.
MORE: Augusta Commission’s American Rescue Plan funding is almost gone
District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett, who made the original committee motion to grant the funding, says that he and several other commissioners were tipped off that some of the equipment Burden says needs to be replaced are actually in fine working order and do not need to be replaced immediately.
“We are going to need to see a complete list of vehicles, their years and mileage, before we commit to spending that kind of money,” Garrett said.
According to Garrett, Fleet Management does keep a list of city vehicles that need to be retired, but Burden did not present the list to commissioners at the original meeting.
District 3 Commissioner Catherine McKnight agrees and says that while she supports the Fire Department, the commission can’t just roll over money without knowing exactly how it is going to be spent.
“That is a huge chunk to spend all at once, and it leaves us with barely a million dollars left in recovery funds. So, yes, we need to see a list first,” McKnight said.
McKnight says that barring some kind of emergency, the department could likely get by with half of the funding it is asking for.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
