Erin Smith, Journal Staff Writer

WHITE LAKE — The White Lake Town Council voted on Tuesday to purchase a new 2009 Dodge police vehicle and a 1990 E-One Platform fire truck. The combined cost of the two vehicles is about $188,000.

The town will use $20,000 from the White Lake Fire District taxes for the down payment on the truck, according to Town Clerk Brenda Clark. Council members Tracy Trivette and James Melvin were absent from the monthly meeting.

According to Clark, the board voted to award financing to BB&T. The bank submitted a proposal to finance the two vehicles for 59 months at a rate of 3.69 percent interest.

A second proposal by Waccamaw Bank to finance the vehicles for 59 months at a rate of 4.50 percent was rejected.

The fire truck is to be delivered to the town on Friday, July 18, and the new police vehicle will not be delivered until September, according to Clark.

The council also voted to allow the town’s engineering firm to submit grant applications to the Rural Center Round 2 Clean Water Partners’ Infrastructure Program for two grants — a $60,000 planning grant and a $750,000 supplemental grant.

The purpose of the two grants is to perform a study of the town’s older portions of its wastewater collection system that have clay gravity sewer lines and brick-mortar manholes, and to make any necessary repairs or improvements that may be needed.

If the town is awarded the supplemental grant, however, as part of the Rural Center’s requirements, the town will be required to increase the user rate.

“Unless we are awarded the grant, there will not be any increase,” said Clark.

In other business, the board adopted a resolution to participate in the North Carolina League of Municipalities “Green Challenge.” The are five different levels of the challenge and the town will be required to complete a minimum of two of the five levels.

The town is in the process of performing an “energy audit” to determine ways the town can conserve its energy usage, according to Clark.