Apparatus at the town's four fire departments are in need of an upgrade, according to Berlin Fire Department Chief Jim Simons, who also serves as the town's fleet manager and its fire safety administrator. The departments are asking for the purchase of two major items -- a pumper truck and a ladder truck. The price tag is approximately $1.6 million.

The good news, however, is that $920,000 remains from a bond that was authorized in 2006 to replace fire equipment. The town is looking to borrow $700,000 to cover the rest of the bill. A public hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. regarding the bond.

Mayor Mark Kaczynski said he had a meeting with Simons and representatives from the four departments (Berlin, East Berlin, Kensington and South Kensington) and that they presented a "great plan" that was going to cost the town some money up front, but in the long run would produce savings, and most importantly, provide the fire stations and their crews with what they need.

"Spending some money to buy some new equipment, that's always going to happen," Kaczynski said.

Town Manager Denise McNair said a committee, over the past year, looked at all the apparatus at each of the four stations to see what needed to be replaced. The goal, she added, was to get all departments using the same equipment.

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The Stillwater Fire Department protects about 62 square miles of land -- the majority doesn't have fire hydrants. That makes the "water tender" tanker pumper a critical piece of equipment for transporting water to the scene of a fire.

Two weeks ago, Stillwater took delivery of a new water tender, which replaced a 27-year-old unit. The new unit, which made its inaugural fire call early in the morning of Jan. 22, is very similar to the old unit, but it meets any new standards of the National Fire Protection Association.

"The primary purpose is to bring water to our non-hydranted areas," Capt. Chad Jansen said.

Built by Custom Fire Apparatus, based in Osceola, Wis., the new water tender is packed with features to make it more effective for attacking fires in rural areas.

It can carry 2,000 gallons of water, and it has a 1,000 gallon-per-minute pump. Tucked into the extended front bumper is a length of fire hose that is pre-connected to the tank, so crews can simply pull up to the scene and pull the hose out of the front to have an immediate water supply.

Stowed in a compartment on the driver's side is a drop-down portable tank -- essentially a pool that serves as a reservoir for other pumpers when needed. Using special water chutes, located on three sides of the vehicle, the water tender can offload its 2,000-gallon cargo in less than a minute and run for more water.

For large structure fires, Stillwater can team with nearby departments that have water tenders to form a "water shuttle" to keep the portable tank full.

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Oklahoma City firefighters at Station 8 are specially trained to handle collapses, whether the cause is an earthquake or a tornado.

They have listening devices to locate victims, special cameras to see inside rubble, massive 90-pound jack hammers and concrete chainsaws to cut through building debris and much more.

Much of this equipment was used to find people in Briarwood and Plaza Towers Elementary in the May 2013 tornadoes. 

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Officials are scrambling to decide how to bring down the cost of the new center fire station without cutting programming or efficiency.

The cost of the schematic design plan has come in at about $4 million more than taxpayers appropriated.

When $12.7 million was appropriated at last year's annual Town Meeting, the fire station was planned at 22,000 square feet.

When architects from Dore & Whittier, Inc., took to the drawing board to design a plan for the station, they increased the size of the building to about 25,000 square feet, which came at a cost.

That is just one feature that will be slashed from the plan as the Board of Selectmen waits for architects and the Permanent Town Building Committee to bring the cost of the facility closer to the amount appropriated. Bringing the size back down saves $650,000.

The square-footage of the station increased because the size of hallways got wider in the design and the size of common spaces increased, PTBC Chairman Tom Mahanna said.

"The size may have grown. It was not because we went back and added facilities," Mahanna said at the meeting Tuesday.

Upon realizing the budget issue, some rooms have been combined to save space.

Another measure driving up the cost was an increased price to construct the building, which could become even more inflated if the design process continues to drag on.

The plan Dore & Whittier presented is a 30 percent design of the building. The first plan presented to selectmen in November had 37 rooms on the first floor and 16 on the second floor. The updated schematic plan presented Tuesday had 33 rooms on the first floor and still 16 on the second.

The bathroom and a smaller conference room for the chief and deputy chief were cut in the second plan. The square-footage of other rooms was reduced, and the training room for both fire and police was moved to the rear of the building so that it could go to bid separately as a cost-saving measure.

"We tried to fine-tune the floor plan as much as possible," Mahanna said, "make cuts we felt were appropriate without sacrificing the overall program."

Plan alterations the PTBC and architects intend to make to drive down costs include:

-- Site changes to include removing four benches and a bike rack, making concrete sidewalks asphalt, reducing the number of flagpoles from three to one, reducing landscape plantings and changing granite curb to concrete.

-- Architectural changes like removing more than $65,000 in brick features, removing granite sills from the windows, deleting the premium integral gutter system, making commercial refrigerators residential, reducing the number of washers and dryers and more.

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