By Juan Montoya
The 1927 American LaFrance Aerial Fire Truck that is finally back home in Brownsville.
The truck was purchased by the city for $50,000 from a truck company owner from Pennsylvania who bought it as scrap and whose heirs sold it for a song to the city fully restored as he wished before he died.
The city signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Brownsville Historical Association for its care and preparation for exhibition.
The truck, after it was junked by the city for scrap metal in a local junkyard, was purchased by truck dealer John W. Brown, of Chambersburg, Pa.His son Ronald Earl, told firefighters that his father had always wanted the truck to go back to Brownsville.
The city commission approved the MOU with the Brownsville Historical Association to purchase the fire truck on July 30, 2018.
As of yesterday, city officials received it and it is now being stored for cleaning and presentation in the near future.
Firefighter Jorge Lerma said he had been urging the city to buy the antique engine which was last used n the city's Bicentennial Celebration in 1976. (It broke down during the parade). He said city commissioner Ben Neece was instrumental in restarting the process of its acquisition and eventual transport here.
Yesterday, by circumstance, he was on duty and needed to replenish the fluids of his truck at Public Works. He arrived there as it was being unloaded.
"I was excited that it was finally here," he said. "As it was being unloaded a guy from Public Works asked me to sound the sire, which needed to be cranked by hand," he said. "It was exciting to have it back."