New ladder truck being prepared for Elyria fire service

ELYRIA — More than three years after the city purchased it, the Elyria Fire Department has finally received a new ladder truck to replace the aging flagship of its firefighting fleet. Fire Chief Joe Vargo said that the department took possession of the new truck on Friday, and the city posted to Facebook on Monday celebrating the upgrade. The new truck is set to replace the Tower 8 ladder truck, which has been in service since 2009. City Council approved the purchase of the new truck in spring 2023 for the price of $1.7 million, all of which was covered by federal American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds. Elyria was far from alone among municipalities that used ARPA money to purchase new emergency apparatus, creating a backlog that contributed to the three-year wait for the new truck's arrival. At a City Council meeting on Monday, Vargo said that the new truck, which will take on the "Tower 8" name, is still being outfitted by the department's mechanic, so the old truck will remain in use until that process is complete. While it is still being worked on, the new truck is being stored at Fire Station No. 2 on Broad Street, but once it is complete it will be moved permanently to Fire Station No. 1 on Cedar Street, home to the current ladder truck. Once the new ladder truck is ready, Vargo said the old truck will be moved to Station No. 3 where it will serve as a reserve truck. "I am going to be monitoring that apparatus over the next year because it is in bad shape, from what I am being told by the mechanic," Vargo said. "We don't know how long we are going to be able to maintain it so that it is cost-effective for the administration, Council and the citizens. So that is why I'll be monitoring it over the next year, to see what it costs to keep it running in reserve status." Vargo said that after the city posted a picture of the new truck outside Station 2, he saw a number of inquiries from residents asking whether Station 2 had reopened, but he clarified that it had not. The city is currently in the process of bringing Station 2 fully back online, after it spent the past two decades serving only as an office for the department mechanic and a few administrators. Safety Service Director Chris Pyanowski said in April that the city planned to begin running a fire engine company out of Station 2 in an effort to improve response times and service to southeast Elyria, but he said that the transition back into a full station would take several months. Vargo said on Monday that the transition process is still underway. Once the station is back in service, only Fire Engine No. 2 and its fire crew will run out of it.