Lincoln County officials gathered Monday in the parking lot ofthe Lincoln County-Brookhaven Government Complex to accept a new$168,000 pumper for the Zetus Volunteer Fire Department.

Zetus Fire Chief Dale Anding drove the 2007 model 1,000-gallonfire truck from Tupelo Fire Equipment and arrived at the courthousearound 11 a.m. for officials to inspect the vehicle.

The new truck, purchased from manufacturer Rosenbauer CentralStates of South Dakota, is identical to one purchased in 1996,Anding said. The two trucks will greatly increase the department’sability to respond and fight fires in the district.

The chief said after the inspection, he intended to take thetruck to the station and begin adding equipment to it.

“It will be ready to respond today,” Anding said.

The new pumper, and its twin, have a few subtle differences thatset them apart from other fire trucks in the county, said LincolnCounty Fire Coordinator Clifford Galey. They have a “pump and roll”feature not found on many fire trucks.

“The truck is capable of moving and spraying water at the sametime,” said Steve Golding, a sales representative from Tupelo FireEquipment. “It’s a good feature for things like fighting grassfires along the interstate.”

In most fire trucks, the vehicle’s transmission serves the truckand is also used to power the water pump, which requiresfirefighters to manually transfer its operations.

In other matters during Monday’s meeting, District FourSupervisor Doug Moak said he had been approached by Lincoln CountySchool District Superintendent Terry Brister about whether thecounty would be interested in one of the mobile school labs at WestLincoln Attendance Center. The 30×30 square foot mobile lab wouldbe donated to the county, Moak said.

“It would make an excellent voting precinct,” Moak said.

Plans to locate the building on one acre of school property,which would be leased to the county, are under discussion.

“I think that would be a good idea to get (the precinct) out ofthe school,” said Board President Gary Walker.

In an unrelated matter, Walker said the U.S. Forest Service isstarting to cut timber to forge a trail through the HomochittoNational Forest. The trail will become a road connecting CaseyvilleRoad to Veto Road in Franklin County.