The Dalton, GA, Fire Department held a ceremony to dedicate the city’s newest fire truck at Station #4 on Friday afternoon. The new Engine #4 was put into service after a brief ceremony attended by Mayor Pennington, Councilmember Dennis Mock, and Public Safety Commission member Truman Whitfield and other city officials. The new truck is the second of three new Dalton fire trucks to be purchased with funds from the 2020 SPLOST. The third truck will be purchased in 2023.
“We appreciate the support of our citizens of the City of Dalton. Obviously this was a SPLOST purchase and we have been blessed over the years to get a ladder truck last year, and to get this one this year,” Chief Todd Pangle said during his brief remarks before the truck was put into service. “We appreciate the support of our Mayor and Council and the Public Safety Commission for all of the hard work put into this.”
The new fire engine was built by the Sutphen company and city taxpayers ended up getting quite a deal on the purchase. The new engine cost approximately $635,000. That price tag is at least $140,000 lower than it would have been if the truck was ordered today, however. In 2021, when the City of Dalton agreed to purchase the three SPLOST fire trucks, fire officials signed a contract with Sutphen that guaranteed the purchase price and stated the company could not raise the price more than three percent due to inflation or cost increases in the cost of parts.
“We were told today that if we bought this same truck, it would have cost us $140,000 more,” said Chief Pangle. “So as of now, we’re at a savings of $280,000 thanks to signing that contract [with the cost of next year’s purchase included].”
Fridays ceremony included several traditional touches. First, firefighters sprayed down the new Engine #4 with water from the previous Engine #4. Then all of the fire personnel present teamed up to push the engine back into its bay in Station #4. Before motorized fire trucks when the fire service used wagons pulled by horses, firefighters wetted down the horses after calls to cool them off and pushed the wagon back into the fire station by hand.
