Carpentersville FD seeks new ladder truck

Excerpts from Carpentersville village board meeting minutes:

TO: Village President and Board of Trustees
FROM: John?Paul Schilling, Fire Chief
DATE: January 31, 2020
RE: Ladder Tower & Engine Replacement with Multi-Function Vehicle (Quint)

BACKGROUND
The current engine and ladder tower assigned to Station 91 were purchased in 2000 at a cost of $280,000 for the engine and $642,255 for the ladder tower. For many years the Village’s Capital Replacement program has had these two vehicles scheduled to be replaced in FY 2020. During the FY 2017 budget process, the fire department recommended that instead of replacing both vehicles, it would be more advantageous to replace the two vehicles with one multi-function vehicle it can provide the services of an engine and a ladder truck at a greatly reduced cost.

At the beginning of May of 2019, we discovered a catastrophic failure of the support structure of the 100-foot ladder. A cost versus benefit analysis was conducted and determined that due to its age and the scheduled replacement in FY 2020, it was not worth the cost of repairing the damaged support structure.

Over the past four months, fire department and fleet maintenance personnel formed a committee to determine the mission of the replacement multi-function vehicle and the specifications to not only support the current level of service provided to the community but to also increase the level of service at a lower cost.

ANALYSIS
Use of an established purchasing cooperative bid program which alleviates the time and cost of conducting an open bid process. The results of utilizing the Houston Galveston Purchasing Cooperative bids, reduced the initial base cost by $42,998. The committee took a very conservative approach in the design and specification of the vehicle. The resulting specifications only included needed items and not any items that are outside of meeting it mission or considered bells and whistles.

Knowing the recent history of structural issues with the old ladder/tower and a front line engine from the same manufacturer, we were able to garner an additional $50,000 discount from the manufacturer. One hundred percent prepayment will result in a $32,755.00 price reduction. Since we are recommending the 100 percent prepayment it is imperative to incur the cost of a performance bond at a cost of $2,984. The Carpentersville and Countryside Fire Protection District Board was successful in obtaining a levy increase with the emphasis on the purchase of this new vehicle and their residents and businesses having a direct benefit from this purchase. The levy increase is estimated at an additional $120,000 for fiscal year 2020 and subsequent years. It should be noted under this section that if the village does not initiate this purchase prior to February 14, 2020, the manufacturer will be instituting a three percent price increase which would result in an $32,629 cost to purchase the vehicle.

During the evaluation time period of 2001 through 2018 the fire department responded to 672 structure fires involving properties with total value of $204,397,000 which resulted in $192,041,000 in property value saved. Conservatively estimating that the telescoping ladder was used as part of an effective firefighting force 10% of the time, this would show that the old ladder truck had a part in saving $19,204,000 in property. The initial investment of the old ladder truck was $642,255 and during its service life participated in saving $19,204,000 worth of property value. This would indicate that the ladder truck saved a property value of 29.9 times more than the villages initial investment.

Solely based on historical data, it is estimated that the new Quint will respond to at least the same number of structure fires as in the past (672) and that the return on this investment would be even greater being that most property values are higher than in the past 18 years. Carpentersville is home to over 100 multi-family residential buildings. The odds of a successful rescue of multiple victims from the third floor are increased significantly when an aerial ladder is utilized.

The Insurance Service Office (ISO) which sets the standards for fire departments Public Protection Classification (PPC) states the following for the necessity of a ladder truck in a fire protection areas; “Individual ladder/service response areas with at least 5 buildings of 3 stories or 32 feet or more in height (ground to eaves) or with at least 5 buildings that have a Needed Fire Flow greater than 3,500 gpm or with at least 5 buildings meeting any combination of those criteria must have a ladder company.” As noted throughout this report, the Village of Carpentersville definitely meets this ISO requirement. It should also be noted that should the village not provide an aerial ladder truck, the current Public Protection Class (PPC Class 2) would be in jeopardy of increasing to a PPC Class 3 or higher and increased insurance premiums for commercial properties.

With input from the fire department and fleet service, the new vehicle should have a minimum requirement of a 100’ telescoping main ladder, a single-axle chassis, a minimum of a 1,500 gallon-per-minute pump, and a minimum of a 500-gallon water tank.

Base price for qualifying vehicles from three apparatus builders are $817,000, $794,000, and $1,261,000.