Bnechis

PFD runs with 1 FF on the ladder and 1FF/1 Lt on the engine. And its "do more with nothing". The Pelham Village Board has been debating cutting the manning from 3 on a shift to 2.

You are correct about the Construction Grants. It was a one time grant designed for the trades and not for us. $200 million was budgeted and they recieved over $3 Billion in requests (clearly a need exists). Normally it is spring, but the Gov. shut down threat, put it off. Sounds like it will open between Memorial Day & the 4th of July

No one has ever claimed that Seagrave rigged a bid. The primary way that a manufacturer / dealer could do that is thru collusion (i.e. I'll bid x on this one and you bid x+1, then on the next bid we will switch). According to our purchasing dept. thats a felony and we require a sign off that that was not done. The claim was that if you narrow the scope of the bid, to the point that you know you are excluding all bidders, except 1. Then State purchasing laws says you are bid rigging. Agreed

This is not uncommon. Most commercial services require a return on their investment, the exception is when they are willing to reduce cost in exchange for a 1st time contract. Some communities are able to get "zero" dollar contracts, because the call volume and the local collection rate justifies it as the commercial service can meet the require return on investment. In slower systems the service would loss money, so they require the community makes up the difference. The community may also desire a higher level of service, i.e. we want 3 ambulances, but the collection rate will only cover 2 ambulances. The community may opt to pay for the 3rd unit.

Its been done....Rural/Metro and after the high performance model they used, NYS outlawed them.

Care to explain? If you are talking about a shop traviling longer to get to you. We dont pay for that, our contract is time & matterial one site. If you are talking warrenty issues, we dont pay that the manufacturer does. If you are talking general maintenance, most dealers do it in your fire station and they dont charge for the distance if they value your buisness. And for general maintenance you have lots of options, the dealer, public works garage, your own shop (for those that have), and there are many independent or other truck repair shops available.

Down time is critical to all depts, even those with plenty of spare apparatus. Just because a dealers shop is closer does not mean you will get your rig back faster. If the close shop has fewer mechanics/technicians, if they have fewer feild personnel or if they dont stock major parts. A larger shop thats 90 minutes farther, but fully stocks parts will be able to fix your rig and have it back to you before FedEx arrives at the closer dealer with the parts you need. Also larger dealers often have the ability to loan spare rigs, particularly if yours has a major issue. The seagrave shop is 24 miles to the center of Tarrytown, another dealers shop (not in Westchester) is 16 miles.

Very true. However it is very rare to see them pull someone, particularly at the BLS level.

I only know why they threw out the 1st bid. I dont know what happened with the 2nd. How critical is having the dealer in the county? We have a mile distance in our spec and many dealers don't meet the 100 mile radius. We allow dealers to be beyond that if they provide a written plan on how they plan on servicing our purchase. In 25 years its never been a problem and the farther the dealer, often the better the service we recieved.

If the issue was size and the bid was only a vehicle that is under "X" feet knowing that there is only 1 manufacturer is not rigging a bid. But writing the dealers shop must be located in the county, when only one manufacture meets that, but other dealers outside the county are closer to the dept. can not be justified under NYS purchasing regulations.

Its very hard to have a credible voice in round #2, if in round #1 you advicate breaking state law to get what you want. Particularly since the issue in round #1 did not have anything to do with vehicle size. And since we do not know the facts as to who is at fault: The FD, The Consultants, the village, the dealer or the manufacturer, its a little early to determine who has pie on their faces.

How about before you convict them, we learn the facts. I have seen many specs that had a requirement that the vehicle must fit into a specific station, including ones written by them. And Have seen a number of reasons why a rig didn't fit; Spec was wrong, building measurement was wrong, rig was built taller than spec, dept. changed/added something during construction, etc. You mean the seagrave they rigged the bid to try and get? Having reviewed that spec it was clear that only one dealer could bid on that spec. And the NYS Comptroller says thats illegal. You can purchase from a sole source but their are parameters, that they did not meet. It took a lot of political courage for the board to follow the law.

You are correct rigs today are very complicated. Maybe its our fault, we expected to much. we thought things like the dashboard and engine cover would last more than a few years. We also expected door handles on the cab would actually last more than 1 year. These hi-tech compnents cant be expected to last on a $500,000+ truck.

Yes they are, but the agency has a responsibility to supervise and "failure to supervise" will attach liability to the agency.

Thier has been a huge battle over the criteria for Firefighter placement on the NYS Memorial. If you knew the details you would understand why. It is hard to consider the worthyness of the wall criteria when some gave all while searching above the fire for a missing child and others in their late 80's with a major cardiac condition who coded while being arrested after ignoring a lawfull request to open a road for law enforcement. The 1st is dishonored by considering the 2nd for the same honor.

The economics of the fire service is not about what the fire service costs. It is what is the cost of fire protection? The Water Supply + The Fire Department + Building Construction + Code Enforcement + Fire Insurance = the cost of fire protection. These 5 components add up to the total cost of fire protection. If you spend more in one category another category drops,often the drop can be more than the additional cost. Example #1 Adding automatic fire sprinklers to single family dwelling causes the insurance premium to drop. Generally the savings equal the sprinkler cost after seven years. If the structure has a 30 year morgage, the owner will have spent less for 23 years because of the sprinklers. Since most uildings last far longer, after the buildings 7th year it’s all savings. Example #2 Improving the fire department may cost millions, but the savings on the insurance often offsets the Fire Department’s cost, sometimes by 5 to 10 times. Example #3 Failing to inspect your water supply to the AWWI (American Water Works Institute) standards may save the cost of hiring an inspector, but it can drop the insurance rating and cost the community millions of dollars. Fire Protection is the ONLY municipal service where improved capability often result in savings to taxpayers through reduced property insurance premiums. In New Rochelle we have calculated that if the FD has a $1 million reduction in our budget, the property owners will see an increase of $12 million in premiums. If we gave 100% back and eliminated the FD, the property owners would pay an additional $50 -$75 million above what they currently pay for FD and Insurance combined

Since Metro North and LIRR are just geographical divisions of MTA, and all the $ goes to MTA, does it make any difference?

What was the vote Totals (for and against)?

From an end user: They are junk. We have 3 and they can not supply parts to replace broken parts we have in all of them.

It does not matter if the Ferrara will hold up better or worst than the seagrave, They were selected, not because they were better, but because Seagrave did not want to sell ladders to FDNY.

The Chassie is flat bedded to NE. Ladder / systems installed then flat bedded back to LA

Percentage is a very poor way to determine coverage. If dept X has 100 interior members and 60% go to the parade, you still have 40 members left. If you only have 10 interior members and 60% go, you are pressed to meet the 2in 2out standard. The bigger question is not what parade coverage you provide on a few days a year (which is important), but what is your ability to meet minimum national standards, 24/7/365. Too many depts cant do this every day of the year. And if you cant do that, then feel free to go to the parade, because its clear that your dept is not there for the community anyway.

Re-read what I wrote....its most active party members were the city politicians. Is not 1/2 the budget, its 1/2 of the 2% or "welfare" money.

You may be closer to the truth than many will admit. I believe it was about 10 years ago that it was reported that some of the most "active" volunteers included the Mayor and other members of the common council, even if they had not responded to a single incident in over 25 years, they were still holding 2% sponsered parties, for "the good and welfare" of the memebrs. I was under the impression that about 2-3 years ago tey were disbandeda nd turned into a CERT team. Can anyone confirm this?