The Montesano City Council has given the green light to purchase a used command unit for the Montesano Fire Department.

A command unit is a vehicle driven by the fire chief which has been outfitted with the necessary emergency equipment and lights.

Currently, Chief Corey Rux has a 2004 Ford Explorer command unit with about 88,000 miles on the odometer. That vehicle has seen better days.

“It died three times last week,” Rux told the city council.

In a brief telephone conversation with The Vidette, Rux said morning is the roughest time for the current command vehicle. When the vehicle is put into reverse or drive after it’s started in the morning, the engine dies. That’s problematic behavior for an emergency response vehicle.

“There are days I can’t even get it out of the driveway,” Rux said. “It’s no longer reliable.”

The Explorer is a “hand-me-down” from the Montesano Police Department. Though the vehicle doesn’t have excessive miles, the engine has excessive hours. Montesano isn’t a huge town geographically, but police departments let their vehicles idle for a quicker response time.

The replacement command vehicle will come from the Lacey Fire Department. It’s a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe command unit. With 90,000 miles, the Tahoe doesn’t fare any better than the Explorer by mileage comparisons, but it was not a police vehicle in a past life and therefor it has less engine hours.

The Lacey Fire Department is surplussing the vehicle and Rux will purchase the vehicle for no more than $15,000. The Tahoe will come with all of the equipment necessary for a command unit.

“We can potentially save thousands of dollars with this purchase,” Rux wrote in a memo to the council.

The council approved the purchase during the May 23 council meeting.