Chief Tim Baker said the eight-person committee charged with choosing the trucks began meeting once a month and then more frequently to figure out what the department wanted. When the time came, they narrowed the search down to manufacturers and readied themselves to put out bids on the equipment.
“You still don’t know what you’re going to get until you put it out to bid,” Baker said.
At bid time, the department received just one and it was the one they had hoped for, he said. The new pumper — which is more like two trucks in one — is a custom built E-ONE which is being outfitted with the necessary apparatus by Syracuse-based company Absolute Emergency Vehicles and Equipment, which is also a local E-ONE dealer.
“We’ll call it a rescue pumper, but what it is is an engine with a heavy rescue pumper,” Baker said, adding that the engine is outfitted with an HRT system, or hydraulic rescue tool.
The HRT system allows a rescue crew to get out of the truck at a scene and immediately begin using tools like the Jaws of Life without having to wait for the system to be manually turned on.
“It saves time. It saves lives,” Baker said.
While the pumper is an awesome addition to the firehouse’s fleet, it likely won’t go into service until Memorial Day weekend, he said. Currently, the volunteers who staff the company are getting used to the truck and using it for training so when it does get rotated into use, everyone will be ready to go and know how to handle the tools.
Assistant Chief and truck committee co-chair Geoff Pitman said the purchase and work on the committee was his first hands-on experience with a truck purchase.
“Tim added me as a co-chair and I took that as an honor,” Pitman said. “It’s a good way for me to get involved with it.”
According to Pitman, the new truck is much like the pumper that is currently in service, but is shorter and has a lot of new features on it, including an anti-roll device and many more safety features. However, when E-ONE says Mottville’s new pumper is custom built, they mean it.
No other company in Onondaga County has the same truck as the one sitting in the bay on Frost Street.
One thing the committee and department as a whole prides itself on is that with the two purchases — which equal $390,000 for the pumper and the squad truck — the taxes aren’t going to go up.
“We were able to buy both these pieces without raising taxes,” Baker said. “Each time we pay one off it’s time to buy a new one. We even bought the ladder truck without raising taxes.”
Though there are grants available for equipment purchases, Mottville doesn’t get many of them.
Between the two purchases, the department has been able to get a lot of extrication equipment they never had before. Approximately $25,000 of the purchase cost was used for hand tools.
Committee member and firefighter David Landsberg said the experience of being on the committee showed him the responsibility with which the taxpayers money is spent. The goal was to provide the best value to the community
“I think that we have done the impossible,” he said with pride resembling that of a new father. “I’m very proud of what this committee has accomplished.”
Landsberg said he absolutely hopes to be on the next committee when it comes time for another equipment purchase. However, given the time it took he thinks the members’ families won’t be too sad that the next round isn’t for another several years.
According to Baker, the ladder truck is nine years old and the fire engine red pumper and maroon squad truck are the first two purchases since that time.
“We have our engines on a 15-year replacement schedule,” he said.
