The city of Valley Grande will now have a new vehicle to assist residents in emergency situations. 

After receiving bids from three auto companies in Selma, the council decided at its meeting Monday to write a resolution and buy a 2015 four-door truck from Turner Chevrolet.  Valley Grande Mayor Wayne Labbe said the old vehicle was a GMC truck that was more than 20 years old. The city’s public safety director, Boyd Pugh, used it for city emergencies and business errands.

“Any time you have to purchase something over $15,000, the city is required to have three bids. We had to do a resolution to accept that bid and in that resolution all the bids are recorded,” Labbe said.

The new vehicle cost the city more than $30,000.

Another resolution had to be written to declare the old vehicle as surplus and to sell it to one of four community members who placed bids. The car, which had around 175,000 miles on it, was sold for $1,150.

Labbe said it is important to have a dependable car for emergencies in the city and he is glad another one was purchased.

“An emergency vehicle has to be one that can be depended on. The old car had gotten to the point where it was not dependable,” Labbe said. “The public safety director needed to be able to go to all fire calls, wrecks and help supervise the volunteer fire department.”

He said city residents could benefit from the new vehicle and can feel better knowing they will have help if they ever had an emergency.

“This is part of service to our community. If you talked to a lot of the citizens who have had a need for our volunteer fire department, they would say the fire department and Boyd was there before anybody else,” Labbe said.

Extraction tools, also known as the Jaws of Life, have been purchased for the Valley Grande Fire Department in the past to help with rescue and emergencies. Labbe said they were about $35,000.

“Now we don’t have to worry about the vehicle not cranking or running. Someone can get there with the skills to help people in dire situations,” Labbe said.