By Joseph Deinlein
The Evening Sun
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — In an effort to save money, a Penn Township commissioner is suggesting the township help out its Volunteer Emergency Services by leasing a new ambulance from a bank, then sub-leasing the vehicle back to the volunteers.
Wendell Felix during a public safety committee meeting Tuesday said he’d spoken to the volunteers, who have plans to buy two new heavy-duty ambulances to replace two that are nine and 10 years old and falling apart from the stress of running calls.
The group is buying two Spartan/Road Rescue Ambulances from J&J Emergency Vehicles, which has an office in Chambersburg, for $455,130 for both rigs.
Felix said the volunteers will buy one of the rigs with cash, but had planned to finance the other vehicle. When their representatives spoke to a local bank, an agent there suggested getting the township to take out the lease on the financed vehicle, allowing the bank to give a lower interest rate, he said.
As a governmental entity, the township can get an interest rate of 3.574 percent, Felix said. That would end up costing about $50,000 in interest payments over a seven-year lease, he said.
If the volunteers were to get the lease themselves, the interest rate would be over 6 percent and would cost them $100,000 in interest over seven years, he said.
Felix proposed Township Manager Jeffrey Garvick and Township Fire Chief Jan Cromer sit down with the volunteers and bank representatives and come up with a plan whereby the township would take on the lease, then sub-lease the vehicle to the volunteers.
Any deal drafted would need to be approved by the township solicitor, officials said. And it would need to be clear the township would not lose money in the deal.
“I don’t want to be put out of funds, but I do want to help the volunteers,” Felix said.
The commissioners agreed to proceed with the plan and discuss the lease agreement further at next month’s meeting, set for 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 2.
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