Hallie Lauer

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

(MCT)

Pittsburgh City Council approved Tuesday the leasing of four new fire trucks, after an earlier order to purchase new trucks was canceled in May.

Under former Mayor Bill Peduto, a $1.8 million contract was awarded to Pierce Manufacturing for the city to buy three new trucks.

However, the purchase was canceled in May by Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration, after it was determined that Fire Chief Darryl Jones and the union representing the firefighters weren’t consulted on the purchase.

At the time Chief Jones told Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV that the trucks the city had agreed to purchase would not fit the needs of the department and potentially put firefighters at risk, which led to him asking for the cancellation.

Now City Council has given its approval for the leasing of four new trucks at a cost of about $3.8 million over seven years.

Council President Theresa Kail-Smith said during a meeting last week that she was “hesitant” to give her vote to this lease because of the previous controversy.

She ultimately gave her approval after verifying with Jennifer Olzinger, Chief Procurement Officer in the Office of Management and Budget, that this contract went through the proper channels and was the result of a Request for Proposals.

Despite Tuesday’s approval, the trucks will not be available for use by the fire department until 2024, because it takes about 550 days to build each one, according to Ms. Olzinger.

The Public Safety Department also was given the approval to spend about $9,000 to design and install a roof over the fireboat that is moored at the South Side Marina.

This will help protect the boat from sun and rain, which could damage some of the interior electronics, Chief Jones said during last week’s Council meeting. The fireboat will still have to be removed from the water during inclement weather and during the winter.

In other Council matters, the legislative body approved plans to begin exploring another form of affordable housing.

The accessory dwelling unit legislation asks that the city’s planning department along with the Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections compile a list of how many of these units exist in the city.

They also have been asked to include clerical information about the units, such as the average price of rent and what type of regulations surround building a unit.

The report will be due back to Council by Nov. 23.

Hallie Lauer: hlauer@post-gazette.com

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Broadview Heights (OH) will finish designing a new fire station within the next few weeks, but won’t start planning construction until it has enough money to build it, Cleveland.com reported on August 30.

A Cleveland city official said the fire station’s designer – Van Auken Akins Architects in Cleveland – will come up with a new construction cost estimate as part of its services, the report said.

For more on this story, please go to Cleveland.com.

By Alan M. Petrillo

Hamburg (NY) Fire Department has a 25-year apparatus replacement program in place, but when it came time to replace a 1991 midmount platform, the price of aerials had increased so much that it put off the purchase a few more years. Ultimately, the department chose to buy a Smeal 100-foot rear mount aerial platform.

Tom Moses, Hamburg’s second assistant chief and chair of the 10-person truck committee, points out that the committee had many discussions on the merits and drawbacks of midmount and rear mount aerial platforms. “With our previous midmount, we had some minor accidents with the rear platform when making turns,” Moses says. “There also was concern with a couple of blind intersections about driving a rear mount with the platform hanging over the front of the vehicle, so we went to those intersections and took measurements to be sure our drivers could clear them driving a rear mount platform.” Moses adds that another consideration was the rear mount’s price was about $100,000 less than a comparable midmount aerial platform.

Jack Chiappone Jr., sales specialist for Colden Enterprises Fire & Rescue Division, who sold the Smeal platform to Hamburg, says the 100-foot three-section aerial rear mount platform is built on a Spartan Gladiator chassis and cab with seating for seven firefighters, six in H.O. Bostrom SecureALL™ SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) seats, powered by a 600-horsepower (hp) Cummins X15 diesel engine, and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission.

Chiappone notes the rear mount platform has a Hale QMax 2,000-gallon per minute (gpm) pump, a 300-gallon water tank, two 1-3/4-inch hose cross lays, and one 2-1/2-inch hose cross lay, and a 10-kilowatt Harrison generator. “The department wanted more ground ladders, and more compartment space, but no hose bed,” he says. “We were able to give them 300 cubic feet of 25-inch deep full depth and full height compartments, and 151 feet of ground ladders on the truck.”

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