While the Gaffney Fire Department receives phone calls and inquiries almost “every day,“ it still hasn’t found a new home for two of its fire trucks.

Beginning in early August, the city placed a 1990 Pierce Arrow fire truck and a 2003 American LeFrance Eagle fire truck on the government surplus Web site govdeals.com in hopes of finding a buyer among a national audience.

The Web site did attract a lot of attention, Fire Chief Nathan Ellis said, and resulted in online bids of $20,000 for the 1990 truck and $80,000 for the 2003 model. But the bids didn’t reach the city’s minimum bid requirements.

Ellis said he’s fielded numerous calls ever since the three-week online auction came to an end, but no sales agreements have been reached.

Now, the city is taking a somewhat more traditional route in trying to find buyers, turning over marketing of the trucks to a fire equipment broker, Fenton Fire Equipment.

The trucks can now be found advertised on the Web site fentonfire.com, though the online advertisements make no reference to Gaffney and the city’s name and truck decals have been removed from the online photographs.

The official asking price for the two vehicles is $165,000 for the 2003 American LeFrance and $45,000 for the 1990 Pierce, according to the advertisements.

The city isn’t saying what it’s willing to accept for the trucks, but city administrator James Taylor previously said it was hoped the sales would generate a total of about $200,000.

Proceeds from the sale of the two trucks will help the city offset the purchase of two newer fire trucks, which Gaffney is buying from a fire department near Houston, Texas.

The two newer trucks should be here by next Friday.

Ellis said he’s sending four firefighters to Texas next Wednesday to drive the trucks home.

Ellis said he investigated other ways of getting the newer trucks from Houston to Gaffney but concluded that having his men drive them back was the least expensive option.

By typical vehicle the drive is about 16 hours but the fire department is factoring in more travel time since the trucks can’t travel as fast as a car on the highway and they will be subject to frequent stops at truck weighing stations while en route.

Replacement of the 1990 Pierce and 2003 American LeFrance is expected to meet the city fire department’s equipment needs through 2016.

Once the city takes delivery of its new trucks, Ellis said it will take several weeks to equip them and get them ready for service.