Asheboro approves purchase of specialized fire and rescue equipment

ASHEBORO — The Asheboro Fire and Rescue Department will be upfitted with new trench rescue equipment.

At the Asheboro City Council’s Feb. 5 meeting, the board approved the purchase of specialized fire and rescue equipment.

“In this current budget year, we had requested approximately $300,000 for some trench rescue equipment, a trailer to haul the equipment and a vehicle to pull that trailer,” said fire chief Eddie Cockman. “It got cut from the budget, but my staff, being the way that they are, they’re very ingenious and they still looked for ways to make things happen.”

Cockman said the Fire and Rescue Department was able to locate savings throughout the process, purchasing a discounted truck which won’t require a trailer as well as better priced equipment for a total request of around $185,000.

“From our initial $300,000 request to where we are now with what we have invested, we saved approximately $78,000 to get that equipment, which to us, is very needed,” Cockman said.

“While the department has made significant progress in personnel training, we currently lack the specialized equipment required to safely and effectively conduct trench rescue and structural collapse operations,” said assistant fire chief Matthew Needham.

In addition, the board also approved the purchase of a new fire truck for the city.

The truck, which will be purchased from Atlantic Coast Firetrucks, was ordered more than a year ago and therefore will be available at a discounted price ($950,000) and with a much quicker acquisition time (March 2027).

“The timeline to get a new truck now is 750 days if you start building it today,” Cockman said.

The city’s fire chief also stated that a completely new truck would cost around $1.2 million and with the average age of the fleet around 15 years, which is nearing the recommended obsolete dates, upgrades are necessary.

“Things are increasing in price exponentially and you all are trying to figure out a different route to do then just saying, ‘Oh, we have to have this and it’s going to cost this much and more than a year to get it,’ ” council member Mary Joan Pugh said. “I really appreciate you all’s work.”

The council also approved an approximately $955,000 contract with J&K General Contractor for the construction of the David and Pauline Jarrell Center City Garden contingent upon city staff verification.

Assistant city manager Trevor Nuttall said the anticipated timeline for completion submitted by J&K is a 240-day schedule.

The council then held two public hearings, with the first being for a rezoning request for x acres of property located at 312 West Ward St. from General Commercial (B2) zoning to Office-Apartment (OA6) for a pediatric therapy facility.

“This was rezoned from OA6 on the majority of the property, but there was a small sliver that was RA-6, a high-density residential designation,” Community Development director John Evans said. “This rezoning happened back in 2017 and that was for a large childcare center, which is why we have the B2 conditional zoning.”

Evans asid the childcare center is no longer in business and the building exists as a vacant structure.

The council also approved a $35,000 project match with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for the addition of sidewalks on both sides on N.C. 42 from East Salisbury Street to Dixie Drive.

The total project cost is around $350,000, with NCDOT covering 90% of the costs.

The Asheboro City Council will next meet March 5.