The City of Salem’s Board of Aldermen was set to accept a bid for the city’s 1932 fire truck at the March 14 meeting. According to a prior press release by City Administrator Sally Burbridge, the truck, which had been housed in the glass enclosure at the Dent County Fire Protection District firehouse, no longer has a place to be safely stored or displayed following the remodel of the firehouse entryway. Burbridge said that the open-top truck requires more specialized care than the city government can give it, and if the city were to keep it, the truck would simply deteriorate. For this reason, the city opted to begin accepting bids on the truck.
Several bids were presented to aldermen, however, the board felt that there was too little information about the proposed use of the vehicle by many of the bidders. Board members and city officials said they feel that the constituents want the truck to stay local, since it is a part of Salem’s history. The highest bid was from Huntington Beach, California, at $4,800.
The board, during discussion, said they were looking for more information to be included with the bids to help them make a more informed decision on the placement of the truck.
“I would request a bid or proposal for what they would do with it,” said alderman Sean Bolerjack.
“We have the one from Huntington Beach, which is a museum, but we don’t know the rest of the stories on the other ones,” said alderman Kyle Williams.
The board discussed re-opening bidding with the preference that the truck stay in the state of Missouri, although they said they would consider out-of-state bids if not presented with more local options.
“A museum in California, that’s nice, that’s cool. But a lot of the people are worried that we’re selling our stuff, somewhere else, and it would never be seen again here, obviously,” said Williams. “I don’t think anyone’s traveling to Huntington Beach to look at our fire truck.”
“I’ve heard a lot from the people, and they prefer and ask that we keep it local,” said mayor Greg Parker.
“You didn’t have much interest in local people going up to look at it when it was sitting in the Dent County Fire Department,” said public works director Mark Nash.
“You do now, Mark,” replied Parker.
The board decided to re-open bidding on the firetruck from March 21 to April 19 by a 3-0 vote, as alderwoman Kala Sisco was absent from the meeting.
