Excerpts from the journal-topics.com:

Niles firefighters are waiting on two new vehicles — an ambulance and a fire engine — which, because of supply chain issues including a computer chip shortage, are not expected to arrive until the spring of 2023 and 2024 respectively.

The new advance life support (ALS) ambulance by Horton has a cost not to exceed $455,000, and is not expected to be delivered until May according to Niles Fire Chief Marty Feld. The cost is running about $100,000 more than what was initially budgeted for the vehicle. The new ambulance will replace Station 3’s 2015 front line ambulance, which has logged more than 100,000 miles and has answered about 24,000 calls.

He discussed requesting a bid waiver to obtain a chassis for the ambulance with members of the village’s finance committee at their Aug. 3 meeting, but said at the Tuesday, Aug. 23 village board meeting that the dealer was able to obtain a chassis. The contract through the Northwest Municipal Conference joint purchasing agreement, which is soon expected to be considered by village trustees, could proceed without requesting a bid waiver.

Once the new ambulance comes in, the 2015 ambulance will become a reserve unit.

The last ambulance purchased was a 2019 model assigned to Station 2. That ambulance is two feet longer than what is being ordered for Station 3.

In May of this year, the fire department ordered a Pierce Enforcer engine for Station 2, which might not be delivered until May 2024 at a cost of about $900,000.

The new engine will replace a 1992 reserve engine.  Supply chain issues are more difficult for the engine than they are for the ambulance, as the engine has more components that are proving difficult to obtain.

thanks Rob

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