This from Tim Right:
There is an article that Villa Park was approved for a federal grant to help pay for a new engine that they ordered. This was the meeting item and it was passed.
7. Consider a Resolution Approving the Purchase of a Pierce Impel Engine for the Fire Department through the Houston-Galveston Area Council Cooperative Purchasing Program
The fire department has three fire engines (pumpers) in its fleet. Two of the three are frontline and third is the reserve. Fire engines are replaced based on mileage, hours and general maintenance. It is the fire department’s recommendation to replace fire engines every 21 years, staggered, so every 7 years a new engine is purchased. Currently, Engine 961 is 25 years old, it is a Pierce Arrow with 53,000 miles and just over 6,000 hours of engine time. Engine 961 has had numerous mechanical problems, including last year on route to an emergency when the forty gallon fuel tank fell off.
If the purchase is approved, the engine will take approximately 8 to 9 months to construct. Funds in the amount of $220,000 are available in the Equipment Replacement Fund #65.502.02.401 for this purchase. An additional $100,000 will be budgeted in the FY15-16. If the Assistance to Firefighter’s Grant is not awarded, and the Illinois State Fire Marshal does not approve an interest free loan, staff is recommending a loan from Oshkosh Capital for additional funds needed for this purchase. Staff is respectively requesting authorization to purchase a 2015 Pierce Impel fire engine from Pierce Manufacturing through Global Emergency Products in Aurora Illinois via the H-GAC Cooperative Purchasing Program at a cost not to exceed $510,000.
Villa Park in suburban Chicago has been awarded a $432,000 federal grant to purchase vehicles for its fire department. The grant is coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The funding is provided through Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant program. Its aim is to improve the nation’s preparedness and ability to respond to fire emergencies. The program has awarded $321 million directly to fire departments and other emergency-responder agencies.
#1 by Joe on June 8, 2015 - 8:25 PM
I just recieved word that villa parks new engine will be from pierce and in a black over red fashion and should be here by next month, the current reserve piece will go to a school down south and engine 81 will go into reserve status, how accurate this information is unknown but helpful none the less
#2 by DMc77 on August 26, 2014 - 4:06 PM
Villa Park’s old Pierce aerial is now in Beach Park, IL
#3 by grumpy grizzly on August 26, 2014 - 3:46 PM
Didn’t Villa Park get rid of its aerial?
#4 by Crabby Milton on August 26, 2014 - 3:04 PM
Thought I can respect of parts of what you say, it still begs the big picture question is how cities like Gary, IN.
East St. Louis, Detroit, MI. got to the point of such terrible circumstances where buying second hand rigs is hard? Take public safefty out of the equation and it’s fact that the feds have been pumping money into these area’s for decades. How had it helped? Why indeed hasn’t this cash been used for core functions. It’s like it just went down the drain. I like your point about driving the new ladder in parades and to the store. I can understand how some would think it’s foolishness. (I’ll try to forget I love fire apparatus for this post) PR would be justification for taking it out. Then there would be other cranks who would say that they just leave it in quarters all the time and that’s a waste even though getting it out and driving it is good for it.
#5 by John H on August 26, 2014 - 1:27 PM
…or Crabby Milton, to that last point of yours, perhaps that money could have been given to a fire department in greater need. I don’t know Villa Park’s specific finances any better than I know the finances of any other town that I don’t live in, but I have to say, it does frustrate me that RELATIVELY well-to-do cities and towns often get federal grants to support these types of purchases…when you have the Gary, IN and East St. Louis situations where they are literally desperate for even second- or third-hand equipment.
I’m not at all a supporter of broad ‘redistribution of wealth’ practices (and I’d rather not see alot of these federal or state grant dollars being spent at all). But I’m enough of a realist to know that the political system across our country necessitates that dollars flow down and across to different state and local entities…and it would be nice to see the have-nots getting a chance to buy 2 or maybe 3 assets with the amount of money that another (more prosperous) town may use to purchase a fully-outfitted, state-of-the-art Tower Ladder that drives in a lot of parades or to get food at the grocery store far more often than it is put to its intended use battling large structure fires. Not the case in this instance, but how many times have we seen this play out where a ‘free gift’ from the federal or state govt arrives?
And I obviously am not accounting for alot of the grave fiscal mismanagement in these places where the needs are often times greatest…but you get the picture: grants often go to those with the greatest political connections and/or the best grant writers…and not necessarily where you’d like to ensure appropriate manpower/equipment.
#6 by Crabby Milton on August 26, 2014 - 11:45 AM
Any dept. would be as happy as a bunch of flies in a bowl of potato salad if the feds gave you 500k to buy a new rig. That’s human nature and it would be nice if there could be a fire station every 1 square mile filled with brand new fire apparatus and fully staffed. Any fire apparatus nut like myself would love it. But that’s not pragmatic. You have to balance what the needs of the community with what the local moneyclip can handle. Poor planning from local officals is the reason why some are going to Uncle Sam with their hands out. A community that does that should have been setting some money aside over the years for such a thing. Where were they spending the tax dollars? Ok, name a city that has not lost a large employer in it’s history. If it happens often, perhaps the leaders are doing something to chase them away and public safety is a key factor in keeping them to add to the tax base. Who wants to run a business when there’s not enough cops to combat the criminal thugs and not enough fire/emt’s to protect property and lives? At some point, the govt. will mandate what kind of apparatus you can buy and how to equip it and even require a national color. You may laugh folks but the feds give money to local transit bus systems to but new buses. The catch is that they only pay part of the cost for 12 years then at that point the agency is likely to sell or scrap them since there’s no incentive to keep them up. Don’t get me started on the mess that public schools are thanks to govt. involvement. No nothing is truly free in this world and fire departments are best managed by local control. Villa Park got free money but the rest of the nation paid for it and that was money that could have stayed in their pocket.
#7 by Fartin' Fred on August 26, 2014 - 11:05 AM
Exactly–there is NO such thing as “free” money–it always comes from somewhere, at the expense of something else. It also re-enforces the “Uncle Sam safety net:” when in need, beg Uncle Sam.
#8 by Crabby Milton on August 26, 2014 - 6:15 AM
Free money is wonderful for the recipient but someone else is still paying for it. I know I sound like a mean old geezer but if local government would spend money on things that local govt. should have no business spending money on in the first place, there would likely be enough money for public safely. Remember, free money comes at a price. Pretty soon the feds will call their marker due.
#9 by Josh on August 25, 2014 - 9:56 PM
GOOD FOR THEM!! It does not matter how a Department purchases equipment, If a federally funded grant is awarded, that is awesome, #1 because the department or city does not have to put $500,000 aside in their budget to purchase an engine. Also in this time in our economy, its hard for City’s or Towns to come up with that $$. So the grants do well in these circumstances.
#10 by Brian on August 25, 2014 - 9:01 PM
What does it matter how it is paid for
#11 by Fartin' Fred on August 25, 2014 - 11:02 AM
Do ANY departments pay for their OWN equipment anymore??