The City of Warren Fire Department is on the cusp of having a safe aerial truck again.

While the truck Warren City Council agreed to purchase will take a while to get here, council signed off on a lease on Monday for an aerial truck that will be in service very soon.

The aerial truck the city has had for years had to be taken out of service for safety reasons.

Fire Chief Rodney Wren told council on Monday that delivery on the new truck is “not expected for four months” and said that the city was offered a “no cost lease for a used 1993 truck so (we are) not without an aerial unit in the interim.”

Wren said City Manager Nancy Freenock and Mayor Maurice Cashman signed off on a lease agreement last week to “facilitate” delivery “as soon as possible.”

Council was then asked to ratify the agreement, which they did unanimously.

Wren noted that the the lease vehicle has an “up to date fire pump certification” and has “been approved by the state licensure entity that it is good for our use.”

It’ll roll into town on Tuesday morning.

That means the city will have to find a place for the out-of-service aerial truck and council also addressed that issue on Monday.

Wren said it was the department’s intent to trade the vehicle in “however, due to age and condition, it is not possible to do so.”

So he asked council for the authority to dispose of the truck in compliance with city code and said there are several companies that “will take a unit like this and list it on the internet” to generate bids, collecting 10 percent of the highest bid price as their fee.

“If we can get $45,000 to $50,000 out of it, we would be doing really well,” Wren said.

That’s certainly a better outcome than paying someone else to dispose of the vehicle. Before that sale process commences, it’s likely that Department of Public Works Director Mike Holtz will be tasked with finding city space to store the vehicle until that final disposition.