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WEST MILFORD - Fire Department to slow spending on new apparatus
(by David M. Zimmer - Staff Writer - September 24, 2008)
WEST MILFORD - In the effort to cut the budget while maintaining the same level of service, the West Milford Fire Department has decided to postpone purchasing new fire fighting apparatus next year.
At the request of the Fire Chiefs’ Association and the Township Council, which removed the purchase of a new fire truck from this year’s budget, a fleet evaluation was recently done on the entire West Milford Fire Department.
West Milford Fire Commissioner Edward Steines said the same consultant who did the previous evaluation compiled the report, which looked at the fire apparatus and the replacement schedule to determine if there will be a consistently adequate level of fire fighting capability in the township.
After looking at the results, Steines told the Township Council during its Sept. 10 meeting that the township’s 18 pieces of fire-fighting apparatus would be enough to carry it through 2010 without any drop in service.
“It’s my intention to go a year or two, take a little break and give the taxpayers a break,” Steines said. “What we have already is more than enough to get us through another couple of years before we have to look at possibly purchasing again.”
However, Steines said the Fire Chiefs’ Association has not discussed the evaluation results, and that it is only his opinion that the department hold off on buying new apparatus.
Mayor Bettina Bieri commended the mechanics that maintain the township’s emergency vehicles for extending the life span of the fire apparatus. However, she said the township might get even more out of its high mileage equipment if it is placed in a firehouse that sees either less action, or action closer to the firehouse.
While Steines said he would discuss that option with the Fire Chiefs’ Association, he also mentioned that the individual fire companies take great pride in maintaining their vehicles throughout the life of the equipment.
While Interim Township Administrator Antoinette Battaglia said the evaluation indicated that the township did make a good decision by removing the funding for a new fire truck from this year’s budget, it also recommended that the department still purchase two new fire trucks by 2011.
Steines said having to allocate funds for two new tank trucks in one year would have a big impact on the swelling annual budget. He recommended that the Township Council look at spreading out the cost over two years.
Regardless of when the township decides to buy the trucks, there is a possibility that new state regulations could impact the bid specifications on those fire trucks because of growing concerns about corruption in the bid process.
The New Jersey State Commission of Investigation released a report Tuesday, Sept. 16 that was critical of the way fire trucks are bought and sold in the state. The report said that local officials are negatively impacting the fair bidding process by writing their bid specifications using descriptions of specific fire apparatus that are provided by the manufacturers and their dealers.
Writing such tight bid specifications negates the bidding process as certain manufacturers are guaranteed a contract if they come in under bid, because no other vendors can meet the strict requirements.
According to the report, there is also evidence that fire officials around the state have posed as commercial vendors in order to sell apparatus to their own volunteer fire companies on commission.
As a result of its findings, the Commission of Investigation recommended that the state write truck design specifications, instead of the manufacturers, to hinder tight bid writing. To further ensure the fair bidding process, the commission also asked the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs to involve itself in the purchase of fire apparatus.
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