Stand for the pledge, please.

To the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all the questions.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the City Council study session on January 26th, 2026.

It's 536, 530 right now.

It's a pretty light agenda, so we'll just get going.

Item number one is discussion of resolution 02-26 authorizing submission of a mineral royalty grant or MRG application in the amount of $710,000 for the purchase of a new fire engine.

And with us is our fleet and administrative coordinator Heather Kaplinski to let us in on the information.

Thank you, Marion Council.

So this is for resolution 0226 for the next MRG application.

This is for the next round of anticipated funding through the Mineral Royalty Grant program through the state.

And this is for our next fire engine replacement.

Little background.

Other than staff and emergency apparatuses, vehicles are the next most important resource that has a direct impact on that level of service.

So it's imperative that the fleet is in good condition as well as up to the NFPA codes and standards.

As you all know, Sheridan Fire Rescue has two engines.

They're both 2009, 17 plus years old.

They're both conditionally rated as fair and poor in that recent long-range master plan that they had done.

Engine one is due for replacement with a four-year lead time after procurement.

And as you know, the replacement for engine two is on order, and we're expecting to see that this September.

With that, we are anticipating there could be some inflation between now and that time of procurement.

And the city will be able to match those fund requirements based on our next few years of budgeting.

So general funds and possible GPEP funds, as we have used GPEP funds before towards fire and police purchases.

And currently in this year's budget, 250,000 was already put aside for that next engine.

Staff recommends that Mayor and City Council approve resolution 0226 authorizing the submission of an MRG application in the amount of $710,000 towards the purchase of a new fire engine for the fire department.

And staff requests that mayor and city council authorize the public works director, Hans Mercer, to act on behalf of the council and mayor in all matters relating to the grant application.

Here are the key points that I just went over, and the fire chief and fire division chiefs are present here tonight for any questions you may have regarding engine specifics.

Seems pretty straightforward.

But any questions for Heather or our two firemen.

Yes.

In the uh information that we are given, the engine that we're replacing is rated as fair condition.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay.

So what uh what condition conditional rating warrants replacement, or is that determined by something else?

It seems it seems that an engine in fair condition might raise some questions as to why we're looking at replacing it now.

Yes.

Um I would have one.

Well you have to remember that also we're not getting it right away.

It'll be four years down the road.

Yeah, and I'll get to that.

Okay.

Councilor Patzig, Captain Law Division Chief.

Um, to answer your question, there's a lot of aspects and elements that go into that.

That rating was uh established about a year and a half ago, 18 months ago when we had our um emergency services long-range master plan completed.

The way the vehicle looks, it looks like it's in in good shape.

It's in fair shape just from from the appearance.

And um, you know, so beyond that, we're starting to look at age.

And with this vehicle right now, um, with engine two having been out of service for the last two months, this vehicle has been in primary service for for two months now, and we're starting to encounter more issues maintenance-wise with that, things that need to be taken uh care of and addressed, such as uh turbo actuator and some other stuff.

So it's it's in good shape sitting in the in the station, but as we're starting to use it more, it that's you know really um pushes that fare to needing to be replaced more.

Hopefully that answers your question.

So would you say that uh it's your estimation that by the time the replacement gets here, the quality or the uh the assessment could decrease from fare to port?

I do I would I would uh um agree with that.

You know, just because we're gonna have another four and a half years on that life of that vehicle and more use as well.

Okay.

Um yeah, I'd like to just talk about that four years real quick.

Um so we have uh replacement engine coming this September.

When do we order that?

Probably about three weeks ago.