HANCEVILLE — Hanceville leaders are finally getting to see up close what more than a year of negotiating and waiting has bought: A shiny red new addition to the city’s fire fighting garage.

After a series of financing-related delays, the Hanceville Fire Department took delivery this month on a custom-ordered 1,000 gallon pumper truck. The city financed the $500,928 vehicle over a 10-year period, putting $30,000 down up front for a remaining payoff of $479,928.

Local leaders gathered outside the city’s Fire Station No. 1 following last week’s Christmas parade at Hanceville to officially christen the new vehicle, giving them a chance to inspect their public-funds purchase firsthand. 

Hanceville fire chief Rodger Green said the new engine fills a big need in the department’s response effort, which has faced increasing challenges as the volume of emergency calls has incrementally risen to new all-time highs over the past few years.

“We needed it,” said Green, who approached the city council in September of last year in the hope of acquiring two vehicles to meet the increasing demand for the department’s services. Citing financial uncertainty for the 2021 budget year, the council declined to spring for two new engines at once — but it did sign off on acquiring the new pumper truck, which required several months to assemble to the department’s specifications.

“It took a lot of time and dedication and effort to put it all together; to spec it out and get it built,” said Green. “But we’re glad to have it. It’s 2021 model, with a 1,200 gallon per-minute pump. It carries 1,000 gallons of water, and has more than 1,000 feet of hose to the hydrant. We’re still waiting for a few parts that we’ve ordered, but it’s pretty much fully equipped. It turned out really well.”

Liveried in classic fire engine red with a contrasting black-and-gold color scheme, decals and lettering for the new truck were done by locally-owned graphics company Creative Design. “A lot of departments have the lettering for these things done at the factory,” said Green. “But we wanted to have it lettered here, so that we could monitor the process and have everything laid out like we wanted.”