One of two new fire trucks for the Watsonville Fire Department being built in Pennsylvania by Kovatch Mobile Equipment Corp is shown. A new tiller ladder truck is set to be purchased as well. (Photo courtesy of Pablo Barreto)
WATSONVILLE — The Watsonville City Council gave the go-ahead to a purchase of a tiller ladder truck for the fire department Tuesday.
According to Fire Chief Pablo Barreto, the department currently has two tiller trucks, which are 17 and 19 years old, long past the expected lifespan of 10 years.
“We’ve gotten our money’s worth,” he said.
Repair costs for the two trucks have also been adding up, Barreto said, with more than $33,000 spent in 2017. In January, both tiller trucks were out of service due to problems with the aerial ladders.
The new truck, manufactured by Rosenbauer, will cost nearly $1.5 million, which includes equipment, according to Barreto.
It will take about a year to build and be delivered to Watsonville, he added, and be in service a couple of months later after training and installing the equipment.
“It’s not an off-the-shelf vehicle we purchase,” Barreto said. “It starts from the tires up.”
Once the truck is in service, the fire department will retire one of the older tillers, according to Barreto.
Funding for the purchase will come from Measure G, the half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2014.
“Measure G is creating less stress for the general fund,” Barreto said.
The purchase comes at a time when the fire department is rebuilding its aging fleet.
In December 2016, the council approved a $1.1 million purchase of two fire engines manufactured by Pennsylvania-based Kovatch Mobile Equipment Corp, which are being built from the ground up.
Those two engines are nearing completion, and Barreto said crews will head to Pennsylvania on March 18 to do a final inspection.
“That’s when we go over it line item by line item to make sure all the items are put on properly,” he said.
Once finished, the trucks will be delivered to a service center in Ontario, Calif. for a safety inspection before fire crews drive them to Watsonville.
Barreto estimated the trucks will arrive in late April and be in service by July.
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Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the council received an update on the city’s budget.
According to Administrative Services Director Cynthia Czerwin, the city’s general fund increased by $1 million over the previous year, now standing at $9 million.
“Watsonville is in an increasingly healthy and stable financial position,” she said. “It’s a better position than you have been in the past several years.”
Because of the higher than projected general fund revenue, Czerwin recommended funding a number of capital projects, such as improvements at the Ramsay Park Family Center and City Hall, among others.
But the city must remain “vigilant” with its budget, as a number of issues will impact Watsonville in the near future, she warned.
California’s Public Employee Pension System (CalPERS) costs are expected to increase by $1.3 million per year. Czerwin said the plan is to come back to the council in April with a long-term outlook on how to approach the issue.
“We know our CalPERS costs are going to be doubling over the next seven years,” she said. “That’s very serious. We need to start planning now and do what we can to prepare for that when it comes.”
Watsonville is also faced with significantly lower than expected revenue from its cannabis tax, coming in at roughly $80,000, far below the budgeted $825,000, according to Czerwin.
Only one of the seven permitted cultivation facilities are up and running, while the rest are awaiting electrical upgrades from Pacific Gas & Electric, among other things.
“Those taxes are not being collected nearly at the rate we were expecting,” she said.
Assistant City Manager Matt Huffaker said the city has frozen spending from the cannabis fund, but is hopeful that all cannabis facilities will be up and running over the next year.
