02/27/1978 Board of Public Works Minutes

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33 REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 27, 1978 BID AWARDED - FIRE DEPARTMENT AERIAL TRUCK Chief Oscar Van Wiele submitted to the Board his review of the bids received for an Aerial Ladder Truck and his recommendation. The recommendation noted that $120,000 was appropriated for this purchase. Of the bids received, two were under this amount. The following information was submitted regarding the two bidders whose bid was within the amount appropriated: Hoosier Fire Equipment - Ward LaFrance Cost 123,564.00 Less Trade Allowance 3,600.00 119,964.00 Deduction* 500.00 Net Bid 119,464.00 * If we would accept prior delivery and pay for the marked items on the Dealer Furnished Equipment as available from the suppliers, we can deduct $500.00. Total cost of items is $8,400.00. The Fire Department has no objection to the above. This proposal was completely withihn our specifications. Shamrock Emergency Vehicles - Peter Pirsch Cost 123,482.00 Less Trade Allowance 6,000.00 11.7,482.00 Less Allowance for immediate delivery of trade unit 1,000.00 116,482.00 Addition for Gold Leaf to conform to our specifications 315.00 Total bid price $116,797.00 An exception was taken to ladder locks. We required ladder locks for all sections. Pirsch provides locks on only the second section to allow aligning of runks. Ladder locks for all sections are not available because Pirsch uses a different system to hold the extended ladder sections in place. The difference between the two bids is $2,677.00. Hoosier Fire listed no exceptions and Shamrock listed one (ladder locks. The major difference, however, is the material used in Aerial Ladder Construction. Hoosier Fire (Ward LaFrance) is an all steel ladder. Shamrock (Peter Pirsch) is all aluminum. Peter Pirsch does not build a steel aerial ladder. Since the South Bend Fire Department has no previous experience with aluminum aerials we have contacted nine (9) fire departments using Pirsch Aerials (Attachment A). We have also contacted five departments using Ward or Maxim Aerials (Attachment B). One negative evaluation was received (Attachment C). A visit to the Pirsch factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin was also made.