The council approved a resolution approving a lease-purchase agreement to buy 30 new self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs) for the city fire department at a cost not to exceed $230,000.
According to Tracy Hudson, chief financial officer, the lease-purchase agreement will be financed by Wesbanco at an interest rate of 3.38 percent.
Heaton said that once the city learned of its increased pension fund liability, he and Hudson began looking at options for purchasing the breathing units in order to replace old ones.
“Rather than spend cash from unrestricted reserves, we decided to bid this out for a three-year loan,” he said.