The Indianola City Council approved the purchase of a new ambulance at their meeting Monday, providing a new vehicle for the Indianola Fire Department. City Manager Ryan Waller tells KNIA News the city council policy is to replace the vehicles as needed, and is planned and budgeted for well in advance.

“When you think about our service area, our service area is much larger than just the corporate limits we do serve a portion of the county. And when you think about the trips that we make driving back and forth to Des Moines, that adds a lot of miles on to these very expensive, very important pieces of equipment. So as part of our budget process, we have the Capital Improvement Plan and then along with that a Vehicle Replacement Schedule, for police vehicles, ambulances, and fire trucks in rotation. So as part of our budget process makes sure we are saving up and allocating those resources to make sure we are replacing those.”

Waller also said the city is planning on selling the existing ambulance rather than a trade-in to help save the city money.