Fire truck sales, service company will move to Boone County

By Rod Rose/The Lebanon Reporter

Lebanon August 21, 2008 12:09 am

— A distributor of the world’s most popular fire apparatus is moving to Boone County.
Sales, service and preventive maintenance on Pierce and Oshkosh firetrucks will be available by early 2009, said Mike Mikoola, president of Global Emergency Products.
The company will build a 26,000-square-foot, 12-bay building on four acres in Perry Industrial Park, near Indiana 267 and Interstate 65.
“To me, it’s the right place to build,” Mikoola said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “The Zionsville-Whitestown-Lebanon area is a nice area.”
GEP will re-locate to Boone County from the 1400 block of South Sunday, Indianapolis, Mikoola said. It will employ 20 to 25 persons.
The new building will have a showroom, he said.
“People driving down the interstate will be able to see fire trucks in the showroom,” he said.
“We’re a factory-authorized, full-service parts facility,” he said. From preventative maintenance to aerial truck inspection to pump test, “we do it all,” he said.
Two years ago, Mikoola said, GEP bought Midwest Fire and Safety. The name was changed to GEP after a year, following input from fire departments.
“We’ve been in business 39 years,” Mikoola said.
The company is the Illinois and Indiana distributor for Pierce and Oshkosh apparatus.
Oshkosh builds custom and commercial fire trucks and rescue equipment, fire trucks for airports, ambulances and other vehicles.
Pierce sells stock and custom pumpers, tankers, rescue trucks, aerials and other apparatus. Last year Pierce sold 2,000 firetrucks, Mikoola said. “Their closest competitor did not build 600,” he said. Pierce projects 2008 sales above 2,000, Mikoola said.
GEP recently sold a Pierce Velocity 100-foot platform ladder truck to the Indianapolis International Airport, Mikoola said. The airport also uses Oshkosh snow removal apparatus.
The Boone County Drainage Board Monday approved plans for the site’s drainage.