Ask Mr. Answer Person: "If Luther College and Winneshiek County are giving the City of Decorah money towards buying a new fire truck, why is the city borrowing $900,000?"

Bill e-mails, "Just curious why the City of Decorah is borrowing $900,000 for an aerial ladder fire truck.  What happened to the donations from the Winneshiek County taxpayers and Luther College?"

Mr. Answer Person replies, " As we reported, (http://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2016/08/14289.html and http://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2016/08/14295.html), both the county and Luther have agreed to help pay for the cost of a new aerial ladder truck.  Winneshiek county is giving $145,000 and Luther is giving $120,000.

But those payments will be spread out over several years and the City of Indianola would like its money right away—which is understandable.  So the $900,000 loan allows the City of Decorah to buy the fire truck now and spread out the payments over the next few years.  It's no different than buying a car or truck personally--OK, maybe the figures are bigger--but the fire truck loan (at 1.5 percent interest) will allow Decorah to buy the 2011 fire truck from Indianola without having to save money for a decade or two!