The Portage City Council set the purchase of a new firetruck in motion, but not without questions about whether proposed property tax reforms will scorch the plan.
The council voted 6-1 Tuesday to approve a preliminary determination to get things moving toward issuing a bond in 2026 or 2027 to pay for a new aerial truck. Councilman Collin Czilli, D-5th, cast the sole vote against it.
Fire Chief Chris Crail painted a dire picture of the 27-year-old tower truck, calling it obsolete.
“We own one of only two still in existence, and so something goes down with that tower truck we’re in, we’re in a big mess,” he said.
Last year, the city made plans to replace fire and police vehicles on a regular schedule, something that hasn’t been done for years.
“We can order the truck with no money down,” Crail said, but the resolution passed Tuesday was needed to show the city had a plan for paying for it.
The lead time on a new firetruck is “18 to 24 months, all the way out to four-plus years,” he said.
Czilli didn’t dispute the need for replacing it but questioned the city’s ability to do so if new Gov. Mike Braun’s proposed property tax reforms come to fruition.
“I’m not saying it’s not a worthy expense,” Czilli said, but the city’s financial position isn’t good. The general fund has just $300,000 in unappropriated money planned for the end of the year, and labor negotiations haven’t been completed. That leaves little wiggle room in the budget.
The financing hammered out last year for the new truck includes relying on the Redevelopment Commission to pony up money for the truck with the promise that the city will repay the loan once a $4 million bond is issued. That would pay for not only the new firetruck but also police cars and refinancing an existing bond.
“What happens if the city can’t make the payment and the Redevelopment Commission doesn’t have the funds,” Czilli asked.
“Any change in property tax is going to be bad. It could be catastrophic, but any change is going to be bad,” he said.
Property taxes are the main source of revenue for Indiana municipalities.
Mayor Austin Bonta, a Republican, noted the Republican governor and Republican supermajority in the Indiana General Assembly have property tax reform in their sights but proposals can fall by the wayside in the Legislature.
“I’m confident enough that we’re going to be able to have funding in the future,” Bonta said.
The city wants to redesign the downtown and do road projects like replacing a bridge. “Those are first on the chopping block,” he said. Police and fire protection are musts, and that includes replacing outdated equipment.
Getting parts for the aging tower truck is getting harder, Crail said. “If we don’t secure the bond, it won’t make it. It will end up being a large paperweight.”
The articulating ladder is needed at the mills and elsewhere, he said. It has been used on the river and at the Steel Yard, the Gary ballpark where the South Shore RailCats play, too.
Adding to the urgency for buying the replacement is that this is the last year for that generation of diesel engine. New EPA rules for diesel emissions will require a new engine design. “Nobody knows what will be the quirks with the new generation of EPA standards,” Crail said, so he doesn’t want the city to have a costly firetruck with a new engine design.
In other business, the council voted along party lines to name Republican Victoria Vasquez, R-3rd, council president and Melissa Weidenbach, R-At-large, vice president. Democrats voted for Czilli for president and Ferdinand Alvarez, D-At-large, for vice president.
The vote was 4-3 for Vasquez and Weidenbach.
Czilli, a former council president and the longest-serving member, said this was the first time in his memory that the council has had two nominations for each of those positions.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
