Monday, December 2nd, 2024
City may upgrade, not replace, fire truck
By William Kincaid
CELINA - City officials appear to support making over $100,000 in upgrades to a 2001 fire engine rather than replacing it about five years ahead of schedule at an estimated cost of $1.2 million.
Councilors heard about the fire truck's condition while reviewing the fire department's proposed capital purchases for 2025. They also learned fire chief Joel Lange intends to experiment with thermal cameras and revamp the diving team.
Lange at a Nov. 15 committee meeting said his department is starting to have issues with a fire engine purchased from Pierce Manufacturing in 2001.
"Like the pump packing, that's just kind of underneath, the pump is starting to leak," he said. "We've had to get it worked on multiple times. It's not currently leaking at this time, but it's like we're getting to that point where you need to consider 'do we want to replace this sooner or later?'"
The fire chief wondered aloud at what point the city should stop throwing money into the engine.
"All the lights went out, all the seam lighting just went out a month ago," he pointed out, saying he received a quote of $6,000 just to replace the LED seam light on one side of the engine.
It would cost northward of $80,000 to replace the pump, Lange estimated.
"That doesn't include Jackson (Garage) … overhauling the seals on the engine," he said. "They did look at it this year. They said there's a couple leaks that they think we need to address. I don't have any numbers from them."
However, the actual engine, an "old Detroit diesel," has 40,000 miles of use and looks great, aside from a couple leaks, according to Lange.
"I don't know how many years we'll get out of it," he said.
The safety features inside the cab also need to be brought up to contemporary standards, Lange noted.
"That type of equipment has to reach that level of certification so it can be used out on the scene, and that way you don't have to worry about something snapping or breaking," mayor Jeff Hazel said about the importance of keeping all emergency response vehicles up to code.
The fire engine is slated to be replaced in 2030. The last fire engine the city purchased in 2020 cost about $700,000, and a new model would come with a $1.2 million price tag, if ordered today, according to Lange.
Lange said he doesn't know the trade-in or resale value of the fire engine, but pegged the overall necessary improvements at $110,000.
"So we actually need to start planning for a new truck within the next couple of years, because they're several years out to get these trucks ready," Lange said about the time it takes for an order to be processed and delivered.
Councilors over the last several years have transferred monies from the general fund and from a voter-approved 0.5% additional income tax into savings accounts to finance future park, police, fire and street projects and equipment.
The savings accounts allow the city to build up funds for major capital purchases and projects without having to take on exorbitant amounts of new debt.
Councilman Eric Baltzell said the repairs and replacements outlined by Lange seem reasonable, at least at this point, compared to the expenses of acquiring a new fire engine outright.
Other councilors appeared to agree with Baltzell's assessment.
"My personal opinion would be one of those, 'Ok, let's go ahead and make this investment and get it up to where it should be,' but then moving forward, if anything major happened from here forward, that's when we get more serious about replacement," Baltzell said.
Lange also pointed to other capital expenses for next year, including $2,400 to outfit three firefighters with personal thermal cameras.
The department at present has a thermal camera on a few fire trucks.
"Basically it's just a secondary means of just locating a fire, locating victims, and then also finding the address and get out of the building," Lange said.
He now wants to experiment with relatively inexpensive personal thermal cameras that display anything hot as white and cold black. Visibility inside a burning structure is extremely low, Lange noted.
"Some guys even close their eyes," he said. "You're trying to look. You can't see your hand in front of your face. Just like diving in Grand Lake - you can't see anything in Grand Lake. It's easier sometimes to close your eyes and just base on feel."
The thermal cameras would be attached to firefighters' jackets to help them locate a victim, a fire or an exit in a burning structure.
"But the thing is, we don't want people to depend too heavily on a piece of equipment because we all know equipment can fail. … We don't only train with a camera. We still train obviously with feel," he said. "You need to remember where you're at. 'Hey, I felt this couch going in, I remember this couch coming back through. I know the exit is going to be this way.'"
The chief has appropriated $2,000 to revamp the dive team.
"We are getting new divers. To outfit a diver right now, it costs us about $700 to $800. That's for the dive gear. That doesn't include their scuba (buoyancy compensator devices and tanks)," he said.
The overall fire department budget for 2025 is $1.75 million, an uptick of $367,158 from actual expenses of $1.39 million in 2023, per budget sheets provided by the city.
Additionally, the city in the next few years likely will have to borrow a large amount to finance a fire department project. Built in 1890, city hall houses Celina Municipal Court, the fire department and the police dispatch center.
Fire personnel who perform 24-hour shifts have had to make do with confined spaces and inadequate living accommodations.
The results of a $70,000-plus feasibility study of city hall should arrive sometime this month, Hazel said.
The study is expected to determine how to proceed with modernizing and expanding the space-strapped fire department and, conversely, identify potential sites and estimates for a new facility.
"We will be looking at that with the council, determining who we will get to do the design once we understand what it is that we need to have for a functioning fire department that will also house fire equipment and EMS equipment," Hazel said.
