Orange Beach donates surplus fire truck to Repton Volunteer Fire Dept.

Orange Beach donates surplus fire truck to Repton Volunteer Fire Dept.
During the season of giving, it was fitting that a week before Christmas Repton Volunteer Fire Chief Joe Bartlett drove to Orange Beach with a few of his men to pick up a donated fire truck. In November, the Orange Beach City Council agreed to donate the surplus 1992 KME Renegade Fire Truck and some small equipment to its longtime sister city, Repton, after Orange Beach received lackluster offers on GovDeals.com, an online auction site for government surplus. Two attempts to auction the fire truck through GovDeals resulted in a high bid of less than $6,000, which was below the city’s reserve price. As a result, Orange Beach Fire Chief Justin Pearce recommended donating the fire truck to the Repton VFD. “For what little we could have gotten when we tried to sell it on GovDeals,” Chief Pearce explained, “there’s so much more value in giving it to someone who can use it. It will benefit the citizens and firefighters up there.”
For the small town in Conecuh County, Repton’s Volunteer Fire Department is responsible for an area covering approximately 70 square miles. Chief Bartlett said the new engine was desperately needed as one of the department’s old fire trucks did not pass a recent pump test and will be taken out of service. “We actually didn’t have the equipment to do what we needed to do, so this really helps us out a lot,” Chief Bartlett said after he arrived in Orange Beach on Monday, Dec. 18. “It really does. This will make our second engine now. We also have a brush truck, so we’re in pretty good shape.”
Councilman Jeff Silvers said Repton Mayor Terri Carter contacted him earlier in the year about surplus equipment. It worked out to where the 1992 KME Renegade Fire Truck was surplused and the donation was given the council’s blessing. Silvers said he was glad Orange Beach could help out its sister city, which is 100 miles to the north.
Chief Pearce said Repton was getting a good, durable, old-school fire truck. “There’s no computers on it; there’s none of that stuff,” Chief Pearce said. “You just roll with it.”
“That’s what we like: old school,” Chief Bartlett said. “Get me back to the old school.” The white fire truck, with the orange stripe, rolled through the streets of Orange Beach one last time Monday afternoon, as the Repton volunteer firefighters began the 2-hour trek north to Repton.
Pictured: Orange Beach firefighters, including Chief Justin Pearce; Repton volunteer firefighters, including Chief Joe Bartlett; and Orange Beach Councilman Jeff Silvers on Monday, Dec. 18, 2017 posed in front of a 1992 KME Renegade Fire Truck that was donated by Orange Beach to Repton VFD.