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Sep. 8—With smiles on their faces, members of the Kokomo Fire Department rolled out the agency's newest fire truck Wednesday afternoon in front of a crowd of local dignitaries.

The new Engine 3 truck — which replaces the old Engine 3 — comes after a renewed partnership with the city and the Center Township Trustee's Office. The vehicle will be housed at Station 3 at the intersection of Morgan Street and Apperson Way and will go into service later this month.

"We've historically always had a deal with Center Township because Center Township is larger than the city of Kokomo," KFD Chief Chris Frazier said. "It incorporates most of the city of Kokomo, but the areas that are unincorporated, we've always covered as a deal with them (Center Township)."

But then around 2017, Frazier added, that deal fell apart until Mayor Tyler Moore and Center Township Trustee Rev. Robert Lee began to put the pieces of it back together in 2020.

"And this is the result of that," Frazier said, waving his hand across the KFD parking lot toward the truck. "Center Township bought a fire truck, and we're basically using the truck that they own for this period of time. We're a little behind, about 10 months due to supply issues, but we're excited."

As Engine 3, the new truck will service the northeast side of Kokomo.

But just as importantly, Center Township Chief Deputy Andrew Durham noted, it will also provide professional fire service to the unincorporated areas of the township.

"Our duties as townships, we are obligated to provide fire protection," Durham said. "Obviously the two areas (that are unincorporated), we want to give them the best service that we can. ... I think there was an agreement between the last city administration and us that we couldn't come to terms of how much they wanted versus how much we could give. We kind of got backed into a corner where we had to make a decision quick. 

"We didn't have enough money to make the decision the city wanted at the time, so we went to volunteer fire departments," he added. "We had a lot of residents upset with us, and we knew it wasn't the best decision for them. ... So we understood if we could get back to this arrangement of a contract, it'd give an asset of a fire truck, which belongs to us, but we knew the city was also going to heavily use it."

And Center Township didn't even have to take out any debts on the new truck either, Durham pointed out, as the roughly $680,000 was used with some of the township's cash reserves.

Officials say the truck was personally spec'd out by KFD Battalion Chief Brad Myers, who told the Tribune that there are definitely some bells and whistles that the new Engine 3 has over the old Engine 3— which was built in 2007.

One of those features is the HAAS Alert system, which Myers noted can provide real-time alerts to motorists through navigation systems and apps prior to them approaching hazards, such as a stopped fire truck.