Rick and Peggy Leuthner of Victoria and granddaughter Grace Holt posed with the 1929 Chevy Fire Truck that belongs to the Victoria Fire Department, as does Rick.

NEW TANKER FOR THE VICTORIA FIRE DEPARTMENT
Emergency purchase after a fire
Councilmembers authorized the im-mediate purchase of a new tanker for the Victoria Fire Department at an estimated cost of $160,000 and adopted a resolution declaring a special emergency.
Victoria Fire Chief Tim Walsh re-ported at a council workshop on Septem-ber 28th that there was a fire in the depart-ment's 1983 tanker in July.  "It burned up all the wires in the engine compartment," said Tim.  "Last year we had talked about replacing both tankers, but to save money we didn't."
"We were setting up for training and someone yelled FIRE!" said Tim.  "We towed it to Cologne and they came up with a number.  It's 26 years old.  We are the third owner of that vehicle.  It has 120,000 miles on it.  We are asking to replace it now.  It's not compliant in many ways."
Chief Walsh said the department could look at the two bids last year for $149,000 and $155,000 and see if they're still good. 
"We're looking at new," he said.  "Used is not the way to go.  Just sitting there is hard on trucks, which is why we move them out every Monday night ... Once Council decides what they want to do, we can go out and talk to the different vendors.  We could get a brand new one out here in a week for $155,000, and there are others to look at."
At the regular council meeting that evening of September 28^th, Chief Walsh reiterated, "We don't have the water supply to meet the ISO rating.  We are requesting permission for an emergency purchase."
City Attorney Ken Norton stated, "It would take six to eight weeks at a mini-mum to comply with public bidding laws, further jeopardizing public safety.  Tim Walsh and his colleagues will be getting quotes and researching for due diligence.  We'll turn the '83 vehicle over to the Minnesota League of Cities and get $2,500 from them."
Councilmember Terry Bishop pointed out that, in fact, the Victoria Fire Depart-ment has already gone through a public bidding process last year.

PROBLEMS AT THE VICTORIA VOLKSFEST
TWO DRIVERS IN BARRICADED AREA
"Can you elaborate about what hap-pened at the Volksfest?" asked Council-member Mary Thun at a workshop on September 28^th.
Victoria Town Cop Erick Boder re-plied, "There were two drunk driving arrests.  One was a motorcycle and the guy had a controlled substance, two grams of cocaine.  He was fairly well intoxicat-ed, almost twice the legal limit.  The motorcycle has been confiscated.  Both arrests were driving in the barricaded area.  There were no signs posted that said alcohol was supposed to stay inside the area.  The expectation was that the Cham-ber would have put up signs."
Said Mary, "I've advised the head of the Chamber to set up a meeting with you. City money is involved with this festival.  I want the president of the Chamber there too."

FEWER HOMES FOR KREY LAKES IN VICTORIA
RESPONDING TO SLOWER MARKET

Tim Hanson, project manager for the Krey Lakes development on the west side of Victoria, received approval on Septem-ber 28^th for a reduction in the number of lots for the final plat, due to market conditions.  The reduction is from 74 to 44 lots.  The developer's agreement had to be amended.
"Our intent is to finish this next sum-mer," said Mr. Hanson.  "We do have quite an investment here.  There are three phases in the development.  It needs to be moved ahead.  Hopefully the economics return to what they were a couple of years ago."
Utilities and grading will be built as originally planned but the streets will be built only to serve the lots proposed at this time.

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