Jason Forsythe said the city wasn’t receiving all the funds it should have been getting for quite some time.
“We’ve been working for a couple of years getting some roadways and segments of roadways had not been in our MVH (Motor Vehicle Highway) fund,” said Forsythe during Monday’s Board of Works meeting. “This is going to allow us some additional funding into our MVH fund starting January 1, 2024 for about 46 different segments of roads.”
Forsythe added this has going on for awhile.
“We missed out a little bit in the past prior to when I started looking into this starting in 2017 and prior to my involvement with the Street Department,” said Forsythe. “Obviously, we’d wished we had gotten to it sooner. But, thankfully things happened and we were able to start taking advantage of it. Now, we’ll start to get some payback.”
In other news, the Board of Works passed a pair of resolutions authorizing the special purchase of two fire trucks — one a Quint with a price tag of $1,723,300.00 and a Pumper with a sticker price of $876,837.
“We really have a huge need for these right now,” said Frankfort Fire Department Chief Matt Stidham. “One truck has been in the shop for almost four months. This is something that we replace every 15 to 20 years. This pair of trucks are 18 years old now and I’ve got two of them down.”
Stidham said he was initially surprised at how the cost of buying these trucks has risen.
“I was shocked when I first heard it about a year-and-a-half ago,” said Stidham. “But now I understand that.”
The one thing was extremely surprising was the delay time to when these trucks could be available. The Quint, which is supposed to be used for the proposed new fire department on State Road 28 west of County Road 450, has a 44 to 47-month wait while the Pumper has a 27 to 30-month delay on it.
The cost of the new building is very much in a state of flux right now, but Frankfort Mayor Judy Sheets said the City wouldn’t go any higher than $7.3 million.