The Rock Hall Volunteer Fire Company has received a federal grant that will go toward buying a 36-foot aluminum fire and safety rescue boat, StarDem.com reported.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a $112,500 Rural Development investment grant to the RHVFC, a new release said.

The estimated cost of the boat is $408,000, the report said.

The fire company has what a fire official described as a “standard boat” — one that can respond to a vessel taking on water, for example — but the fire official said no fire company in the immediate area has a boat with legitimate firefighting capabilities to the level that Rock Hall is trying to do, the report said.

The decades-long search for a suitable location to build a fire station south of the Bourne Bridge took a step forward Tuesday night when the Select Board unanimously gave the go-ahead to a city official to negotiate to buy land on Route 28 in Monument Beach, CapeCodTimes.com reported.

The South Side Fire Station Building Committee recommends an 11-acre tract at 316 and 320 MacArthur Boulevard bisected by the so-called paper-road Motor Way, the report said. The site was earlier offered to the town for $2.8 million, according to the report.

Any planned land purchase would face May Town Meeting scrutiny, and taxpayers have argued over the years about the highly-traveled road not being the best spot to build a firehouse or police station, the report said.

But committee members have arrived at both the point where the 2023 town meeting warrant is set to open and the realization there is “no good place” for a southside firehouse in terms of land costs, geography, fire/ambulance response times and overall citizen satisfaction, the report said.

The site of a dilapidated hotel on Seventh Street in Parkersburg (WV) could be the location of the city’s new fire station, NewsandSentinel.com reported.

Parkersburg City Council will meet as the Urban Renewal Authority Tuesday to consider buying the Economy Inn at 1954 Seventh Street for fair market value of $490,000, the report said. If approved, the building could be razed, at an estimated cost of $170,000, and a replacement for Fire Station 3 built there, a city official said.

Station 3 at 13th and Liberty streets was one of three firehouses built in the early 1930s and the only one that hasn’t been replaced in recent years, according to the report. While the others were demolished and rebuilt on adjacent sites, city officials have discussed changing this station’s location to improve response times and the city’s insurance rating, the report said.

Editor’s Opinion Ed Ballam

Who would have thought it, apparatus taking up to 30 months to be delivered and some aerials approaching $2 million?

I remember when an American LaFrance aerial, built in the late 1990s, was the first to break the $1 million mark. It was unthinkable, like $5 per gallon gasoline and waiting a year for an apparatus. Oh, both of those have already happened.

We’d like to think the businesses involved with the fire and emergency medical services are immune to economic pressure like inflation, labor shortages, supply chain issues, and exponential price hikes on raw materials. Sadly, they are not, and businesses in the fire service industry are forced to pass along costs and delays to their consumers just like any other enterprise. There is no exemption for providing goods to noble professionals like firefighters and EMTs.

Fire departments are increasingly facing long lead times for apparatus and enormous price increases that often outpace the ability to raise the funds to meet the costs.

I have been writing about the fire service industry for 25 years, and I can confidently say the current state of the industry is unprecedented. The global pandemic, the shift in labor, and global shortages of materials and parts have become a perfect storm, creating delays and price increases well beyond the control of the people making fire apparatus and equipment. Having personally visited every major apparatus maker in the nation, as well as most of the medium-size builders and many smaller ones, I can say, without hesitation, that the owners, managers, and workers are proud to make great products at fair prices across the board, as quickly as feasible. They are not solely motivated by profit, although they recognize they must be profitable to remain in business.

It pains them to tell firefighters they don’t have enough money to buy their dream truck or they’ll have to wait months, or maybe years, for their new apparatus after they’ve been selling bake beans and barbecued chicken for 10 years to make the purchase.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but it’s all attributable to business concepts that far exceed my ability to fully comprehend, let alone explain. I am just a guy with some firefighting and EMT experience who knows how to knit together a few words.

What I do know is the issues aren’t going to resolve themselves for a long while, with virtually every apparatus manufacturer reporting extended delivery dates. That’s not welcome news to a society having grown used to on-demand, instant gratification.

The economic conditions have forced fire departments nationwide to rethink their apparatus acquisition strategies. Some are looking for demonstrator rigs with short delivery times. There are pros and cons with that. You might get a bit of a discount on the apparatus, and you’ll probably get it sooner than a custom-ordered apparatus, but you’ll likely sacrifice some features you might really want, and that would be a discussion to have within the individual fire departments.

Some fire departments have opted to look for used apparatus, which also has its pluses and minuses. A used apparatus will be less costly than a comparable new unit and be available almost immediately. But, once again, the department will be faced with compromising and having to determine if the savings in time and money are worth the benefit of customization. Again, only the individual firefighters will be able to answer that question. And, with a used rig, there’s the added risk factor involving condition. Is the available apparatus