Council OKs two fire department purchases

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BROOKINGS – The Brookings City Council gave the go-ahead for a new fire engine and a new fire training facility at Tuesday evening’s meeting.

Fire engine

Toyne Inc. of Breda, Iowa, will supply the new fire engine at a total cost of $601,154.56, according to information in a memo from Fire Chief Pete Bolzer. That’s after taking $90,000 off for the trade-in value/discounts for the department’s current 2006 fire engine.

“In the past, if we have traded in a vehicle that wasn’t useful to us anymore, we knew which community it might be going to,” City Councilor Nick Wendell noted. “Do we have a sense of where our trade-in vehicle will be headed?”

“When we declared them surplus and sold them outright ourselves, yes, we did have a good idea,” Bolzer said. “But when we trade them in, it’s up to whoever takes the trade-in to market that apparatus.”

The fire chief added that the trade-in approach has garnered better deals.

Rising costs also caught Wendell’s attention. “Costs have continued to increase in this area. This cost has surpassed what we budgeted,” he said. “Do you feel like that’s a temporary spike or is this a permanent change we’re seeing in this space?”

“I wish I had a crystal ball to predict that,” Bolzer said. “We’ve been trying to predict the market on this apparatus replacement for about the last seven months, and it hasn’t leveled out. It has been increasing.

“In fact, this price is only good for the next 14 days, and then it will take another increase in price.”

The estimated delivery time for the new fire engine is 445 days, according to the memo.

Resolution 22-045 was approved on a 6-0 vote by city councilors, with councilor Brianna Doran absent.

Training facility

There was some bidding competition for the new multi-stack fire training facility, but it was ultimately won by Fire Training Structures LLC of Phoenix, Arizona, at a cost of $494,971. The other bidder was Karila Fire Training Facilities Inc., whose bid came in at $564,350.

According to the memo from Bolzer, the new multi-disciplinary fire training tower will improve the fire department’s training capabilities and will reduce casualties in terms of firefighters and civilians in emergency situations.

Responding to a question from City Councilor Wayne Avery, Bolzer noted that the new facility will be at the fire department’s existing training site, behind the two-story training tower.

Avery was also curious about the facility’s capabilities. “Is (the new structure) made so it can actually be on fire when you’re working on it?” he asked.

“Yes. It has two LP propane-fueled burn rooms in there,” Bolzer said. “We decided we wanted to go with LP gas rather than the straw and pellets that we normally use. It’s safer because there are safety controls and less contamination.

“We place a lot of emphasis on cancer prevention in the department, and I just don’t feel comfortable exposing the firefighters needlessly to carcinogens and things like that,” Bolzer continued. “But you’ll notice that it also has a rappelling tower on there, so it’ll be utilized by the police department and things like that also.”

The facility is expected to be ready to go in the next seven to 10 months.

Resolution 22-043 was approved on a 6-0 vote by city councilors.

Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.