201/65

https://wnep.com/2019/09/23/kme-lays-off-employees/

My best understanding is that two of their pumpers were significantly damaged in accidents in 2017 (1 totaled and 1 totaled to them). The Freightliner was an emergency purchase to place an engine back in service at Station 3 and a used former Mount Hope & Goodwill Pumper was purchased to put a true pumper back in service at Station 1. They have triplet Pierce pumpers on order to replace the engine at each firehouse. The Freightliner will then replace the 4x4 Urban Interface Pumper as the spare. The Tanker in production is a replacement of the Station 2 Tanker.

City of Newburgh put on additional staff and apparatus over the weekend. I would assume partially because they were on automatic response to some border departments, and they have been burned in the past with locals not being able to crew on Spring Break Weekend.

@Anesti do you have any interior or compartment shots of this rig? Just wondering what they changed around after buying it. This rig originally served as Rescue 6 in Park Ridge, NJ before being bought by Walden, NY in 1997 as their first rescue.

From what I understand E-One pulled the plug on Nichols dealer agreement back just before the Harrisburg Expo. They were being allowed to continue with some of the projects they had.

This article misses some key parts to this agreement; to cover only Port Jervis and Deerpark as primary, around the clock staffing, and the board of directors for PJVAC was changed from members of the organization to a 3 person board with the membership and each municipality having a seat.

A quick look at their apparatus shows that their only other fire suppression units are "engine tankers" by their designation, 1000 and 1750 gal. This would make me think that a sizable portion of their district has no or un-reliable water sources. Running a "quint" with only 300 gallons of water would be un-arguably a horrible decision if that is the case. If you are only going to maintain two pieces, then the second must have a considerable water capacity as well. It appears they consolidated a medium duty rescue and pumper into the 2013 replacement as well. Maybe these gentlemen are just ahead of their time in acknowledging they have no true need for a tower ladder and that a 3/4 of a million dollar ladder truck sitting around is not a good investment.

No, I think that would settle it too.

Speaking to some, it seems that their dreams were larger than their budget. They provided ALS/BLS transport for Deerpark and Port Jervis, for a while they were providing only BLS transport from Matamoras due to PA DOH issues, and ALS services to Lumberland. The word volunteer in their name, like so many others in our area, reflects mostly the volunteer board of directors and the paid staff handled 99% of their calls. They did approach Deerpark and Port Jervis when during budget season, however the city wanted to see all the books, setup some checks and balances, and get a guarantee they or Deerpark would always have an ambulance (meaning 1 bus, no go on M/A) if they were to begin paying for their services. There was also some discussion on how much could they provide without having to go out to RFP or bid.

Trust me when I say there was no storming of city hall by the volunteers. In fact, they had a rear mount aerial specification completed which was proposed by a councilman who was a former chief from Truck 1 and chaired the apparatus committee. In exchange they were able to select their manufacturer of choice, regardless of the price (somewhere in the area of $170k high bid).

In the article or describes ths department as having contracts with 2 villages and 2 fire districts. I assumed this was similar to other contracted private fire companies with contractual fire protection districts.

I read this as LCFD being a private organization, not a municipal entity. Can anyone confirm?

Short synopsis: There were decades of fighting between Village of Otisville and Mount Hope Fire Protection District (overseen and contracted out by Town Board) over funding and administration of the Village of Otisville FD. Up until a few years ago the Otisville FD covered the village as required by law, and contracted to cover the rest of the MH Fire Protection District. After multiple failed attempts at the creation of a JOINT fire district a group of members from Otisville formed the Mount Hope Fire Company and were awarded a 3-year contract with the Mount Hope Fire Protection District, leaving the Otisville FD covering only the village. By the end of year 1, the Mount Hope Fire Company and Town Board had successfully created a traditional Fire District for the area that was the Mount Hope Fire Protection District (or so they thought). This, and a few other things, resulted in a nearly new town board the following year who put holes in the legal proceedings and process of the district creation. A public referendum was held and the Mount Hope Fire District was eventually dissolved. Once the Fire District was gone, and the Fire Protection District was reinstated, the Mount Hope Fire Company would remain as the contracted entity for fire protection. The Town Board this year, as required, had to contract with someone to provide fire protection. Bids were submitted from both the Village of Otisville and Mount Hope Fire Company, with the Town Board awarding the contract to the Village of Otisville for 2017. This has resulted in a grey area for the Mount Hope Fire Company, as many wish to remain in service (as a mutual aid option). They will have no primary response area and, with the new contract decision, no tax money to offset operational costs. Those are FACTS

Summary: OFPC has reverted to a system similar to the old Basic and Intermediate Firefighter layout, keeping the recently added course materials.

Cost effectiveness aside, I can see the benefits of this type of treatment.