City buys new fire truck; starts manager search

The Columbia Falls City Council last week approved the purchase of a new pumper/rescue truck, which will replace two of the older vehicles in its fleet. The city’s share of the roughly $785,000 rig will be just under $300,000, with the rural department picking up the rest of the tab.

The city will pay for its share with about $141,786 from the city’s 3% resort tax; the rest will come from a loan to itself through the Cedar Creek Trust if need be. The sale of the two other trucks the new truck is replacing will also offset some of the cost.

In other news:

The council talked about the hiring process for a new city manager. They will solicit applicants in February and do interviews in March. City manager Susan Nicosia will retire at the end of June.

The council also talked about the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. cleanup at length, but took no action on the matter. The city lead the charge to get the site placed on the Superfund list. But the plant is outside the city limits, though currently in the city’s planning jurisdiction.

The consensus was to wait until the Record Decision — which is the final cleanup plan — to be issued. That’s due out from the EPA later this spring, if all goes well.