Benjamin Joe | Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.

Oct. 29—Tracks toward fitting the Lockport Fire Department with a brand-new ladder truck hit a roadblock on Wednesday when the Common Council and Mayor Michelle Roman agreed to withdraw a vote that would commit the city to buy the new piece of equipment.

Responding to a resolution that asked for approval to buy the replacement of recently procured aerial platform truck from the Brighton Fire District, Alderwoman-at-large Gina Pasceri said she wanted to wait so she could make a reasonable decision and not be “under pressure” to vote for the new purchase immediately. Roman said she understood the sentiment and agreed that the choice could wait for another meeting.

Fire Chief Luca Quagliano had identified the department’s potential vehicle from Empire Emergency Apparatus, Inc. and that it would cost approximately $1.6 million, but that the city could save $70,000 by committing to the buy before Dec. 1.

Quagliano said later on Friday that because of supply chain issues, a new truck will not be ready for over 600 days after ordering it. He said he saw no reason to not pass the resolution quickly, rather than putting it off for two-years and see an increase in price of approximately $150,000, and he hoped the council decided to do so.

“There’s enough time to do it, but I don’t know if they’ll change their minds,” Quagliano said. “This board is very strongly opposed to bonds.”

The ordinance for the bond Quagliano spoke of was outlined in a resolution that was also withdrawn at Wednesday’s Common Council meeting. Common Council President Paul Beakman explained that resolution only stated that the city was committing to take out a bond if it was needed to pay for the truck.

While not putting the city into debt immediately, it gave the truck’s builder the assurance the bond would be utilized to pay for the equipment upon delivery if no other means are found to pay for it, he said.

“It’s a very expensive purchase,” Beakman said. “Ladder trucks only last for about 25 years and the truck from Brighton buys more time, but eventually it needs to be replaced.”

Beakman also commended Quagliano for bringing the original price of $1.8 million for the truck down to $1.6 million, and also noted the council did have time before the Dec. 1 deadline.

“This is a council that does its homework,” he said.

According to Jason Cafarella, deputy counsel for the City of Lockport and also a Niagara Falls firefighter, a ladder truck lasts approximately 15-20 years depending on how often it’s used. Coincidentally, the Niagara Falls Fire Department is also purchasing a new truck, he said, and the old truck will be used as a reserve or sold.

“If Lockport does get a new truck, it can put the old one on reserve in case the new truck needs repairs, gets into an accident or there’s another fire,” Cafarella said.

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By Bill Adams

Last month’s column was a tongue-in-cheek tirade on sexism camouflaged as chauvinistic behavior which is one of the definitions of xenophobia. This column was intended to continue the xenophobic topic, however, there’s an entire troop of 600-pound gorillas in the room that the fire service should address first both individually and in their totality. The idiom “there’s a 600-pound gorilla in the room” is defined by the dictionary as “a major problem or controversial issue that is present but is ignored or not discussed because it is uncomfortable to do so.”  Sorry folks – those gorillas are not going away on their own.

To dispel any claim of this writer’s tacit approval of chauvinistic behavior, this disclaimer is proffered: Vicious and vindictive sexism and racism have no business in any firehouse and should not be tolerated.

Teasing or Harassment?

Teasing in firehouses, also known as busting chops, has been going on for time immemorial. It most likely started when one firefighter hid the spittoons in the day room and another procured a bag of road apples from the horse stalls and hid it under the lieutenant’s bunk. Back then, that probably was considered good-natured horsing around. Times have changed. Too many people today get their noses bent out of shape over seemingly trivial matters.

Similar in meaning as busting chops is the terminology busting coglioni which is commonly used today. It was a topic at the Raisin Squad’s morning coffee. It created more opinionated discussion than passing judgment on the recent spate of fires on the morning news. Our resident do-gooder loudly proclaimed we shouldn’t say busting coglioni because it might offend a particular ethnic group. One white hair retorted: I married into that group and my father-in-law says it all the time. Another said: It ain’t no big deal. I heard it on the television the other night on an NCIS rerun. Yet another declared: It’s gotta be legal cause it’s in the dictionary.

Some of the social security recipients around the coffee table said old people could be – but don’t necessarily have to be – considerate when busting chops or coglioni. We all agreed the young ones should cut us some slack because white hairs are always forgetting stuff. That’s why we put our meds in those containers labelled for each day of the week. And, that’s why we always write lists and notes to ourselves. A good day is remembering later where we put them.

At coffee a couple days later, it was decided that it’s society’s fault the world is going to hell in a handbasket. After all, do you think old-timers would blame ourselves? One raisin hit the nail on the head lamenting: “That’s all you hear on the damn news is people whining and complaining about being woke, intolerant, prejudiced, bigoted and not diversified.” In our ranting and raving about those topics we didn’t name names or specify political parties. We try to be careful not to break the unwritten rule of keeping politics and religion out of the firehouse. But gorillas are something that can’t be ignored.

Gorillas?

What, if anything, should the fire service do about those 600-pound gorillas known as wokeness, intolerance, prejudice, bigoty and diversification? Although they are often collectively known as political correctness, it might be a good idea to identify them individually. It might be a better idea to develop a pre-plan to address them – no different than pre-planning for the big one on Main Street. Should a fire department bury its head in the sand and hope it is never on the receiving end o

E-ONE—Cumberland (RI) Fire District pumper. Cyclone cab and chassis; Cummins L9 450-hp engine; 750-gallon polypropylene water tank; 320-amp Leece Neville alternator; Class 1 TPG pressure governor; Trident primer; Whelen warning light package. Dealer: Brian Zarlenga, Greenwood Emergency Vehicles, North Attleboro, MA.

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