A little more than 30% of the Smart City Improvement Program has been invested.

On Monday, Joseph Bellitto, city comptroller, provided an update on what city officials have approved for the Smart City Improvement Program. In September, city officials announced the capital investment plan meant to be a proactive way to replace vehicles and equipment instead of waiting for emergency situations to occur. Last year, the council voted in favor of the city borrowing up to $12,650,000 to pay for the Smart City Capital Investment plan.

As for Public Works and Parks departments equipment and vehicle purchases, Bellitto said so far the council has approved $2,420,435 of the $2.5 million plan. The council approved equipment and vehicle purchases for the departments in October and November.

Some of the purchases included buying new loaders, backhoes, tractors, plow/wing systems and salt spreaders.

In December, the council approved purchasing new fire trucks and refurbishing older ones at the cost of $1.2 million. The new trucks will include a “clean cab concept” that will help reduce possible contamination and make cleaning the trucks easier; removable seat covers that have encapsulated barriers to reduce gas and liquid absorption; lower crosslays for loading and deploying hoses; ladders that can be stored inside the engines and out of the weather; and smaller tanks to hold water — from 750 gallons on the current trucks to 500 gallons — in addition to a higher pumping capacity — from 1,500 gallons per minute to 2,000 gallons per minute.

In September when city officials were discussing the Smart City Capital Improvement Program, Sam Salemme, city deputy fire chief, said the newest fire truck the city owns was purchased in 2013, which is followed by one being bought in 2000, the next in 1999, another in 1994 and the oldest in 1989. He said of the fire trucks, three are considered front line and two are reserves. He added all three of the front line trucks have severe corrosion issues. He said the plan is to purchase two new trucks at the cost of $470,000 each and to refurbish the newest truck at an estimate of $300,000. Once approved and a contract is signed, Salemme said it could take up to 400 days to receive the trucks due to construction and delivery, meaning around the spring of 2021. The ladder truck is scheduled to be out of service for five to six months for a complete refurbishment.

With the city’s plan to now send out request for proposals to potential ambulance service companies, the city has nixed the plan to purchase two new ambulances to possibly start its own ambulance service.

In the original Smart City Investment Program, city officials had appropriated $400,000 for the new ambulances. Even thought that amount won’t be used to purchase ambulances, Bellitto said that funding has gone toward the purchase of new equipment, which included buying a power load system Power-Pro XT Stretcher in the amount of $45,464 last month.

Last month, the council also approved spending $150,000 for the design phase of the potential new centralized fleet maintenance facility. The council approved of hiring of Clark Patterson Lee for the design work on the proposed new centralized fleet maintenance building. The facility is being proposed to be constructed along Crescent Street. The proposed new 20,000-square-foot facility would include 33% more storage space than city officials currently have available for vehicles and equipment.

The total cost of the new centralized fleet maintenance facility is estimated at around $4 million. Bellitto said the city will be receiving $1 million in funding assistance from the state Financial Restructuring Board for the proposed facility. State officials approved the funding assistance last June.

Bellitto said the Jamestown Public Board of Utilities is scheduled to bond for its Smart City Improvement Program projects in March. The BPU will be bonding $3.25 million for water main replacement projects, heavy-duty garbage containers and waste water treatment plant upgrades.