Excerpts from the City of St Charles council meeting:

During last fiscal year’s budget process, the fire department proposed combining the funding for two pieces of fire apparatus and purchasing one replacement vehicle. This would result in the fire department fleet total being reduced by one vehicle. The two vehicles considered were a 2006 engine company and a 2003 heavy rescue. Advantages to implementing this plan include the following:

• Immediate savings of $83,893 from the total budgeted for the replacement of the 2006 and 2003 apparatus

• Long term savings in monies allocated annually for vehicle replacement: One vehicle to replace instead of two

• Both current vehicles will be sold and the monies placed back into the replacement schedule

• Annual operational savings in the form of repair costs, fuel, tires and other consumables

We have conferred with the fleet maintenance group and the City Vehicle Replacement Committee. Both have agreed that the identified plan is advantageous to the city. The city is a member of the Houston Galveston Purchasing Cooperative (HGAC Buy) and the fire department desires to use this organization to complete the purchase utilizing their bidding agreement with Global Emergency Products for a Pierce Dash CF PUC pumper. The item is brought before committee at this time in order to avoid a 3% price increase and save the city approximately $22,750. Additional savings will be made through the utilization of HGAC Buy ($40,000) and from prepaying for the apparatus ($21,032). While the order will be placed before the beginning of the fiscal year, the construction time of approximately 10 months will result in the delivery of the vehicle well into the budgeted year. This is a budgeted expense.

thanks Ron

Tags: St Charles FD orders new engine, St Charles Fire Department