THOMASVILLE — Members of two Thomas County Commission committees voted 3-2 early Friday morning to recommend the purchase of a $500,000 aerial fire truck to the full board Monday night.

Commissioners Moses Gross, Louis Rehberg and Elaine Mays voted in favor of the recommendation, following a motion by Gross and a second by Rehberg.

Commissioners Ken Hickey and Mary Jo Beverly cast nay votes at the 8 a.m. meeting at commission offices on North Crawford Street.

At a 6 p.m. Monday meeting in the second-floor courtroom at the Thomas County Courthouse, commissioners will vote on whether to accept a bid of $499,201 from the Holden, La.-based Ferrarra Fire Apparatus Inc. for a 2008 HME to be delivered in a maximum of 90 days.

Other bids were:

• Fire Fighting Innovations Inc., Callahan, Fla. — $476,887 for a 2008 Sparta, 270 maximum delivery days, and;

• Pierce Manufacturing, Appleton, Wisc. — $589,464 for a 2008 Pierce, 75 maximum delivery days.

“We need a good, old Chevrolet. We don’t need a Cadillac,” Commissioner Claud Davis said.

Purchasing and emergency services committees met Friday. Davis attended the meeting, although he is not a member of either panel and did not vote.

Commissioners questioned where repairs would be made on a new truck.

“Unless it’s something catastrophic, it should not have to go anywhere for repairs,” Chris Jones, county fire chief, told commissioners.

About 99 percent of the problems with new fire trucks are electrical and can be repaired on-site, the chief added.

Rehberg said a need for the truck exists, and money is available to purchase the vehicle without touching tax revenue.

“It would all be taken care of with impact fee money,” Rehberg explained, adding that the county fire department will have to replace 10 fire trucks during the next two decades.

“This is a basic pumper that has a ladder on it,” Rehberg said. The truck can battle blazes from overhead and save firefighters’ lives, he added.