Special Purchase - Sentinol Emergency Solutions - Used Fire Truck

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1222 S. MICHIGAN STREET SOUTH BEND,INDIANA 466ol-282I CITY OF SOurH BEND PETS BUTTIGIEG, MAYOR November 20, 2018 SOUTH BEND FIRE DEPARTMENT STEPHEN E Cox Board of Public Works FIRE CHIEF 227 W. Jefferson Blvd. South Bend, IN 46601 Dear Board Members, PHONE 574/ 2.35-9255 FAX 5741235-9305 The South Bend Fire Department requests your consideration for the purchase of a used fire apparatus for immediate addition to the city's fleet. The Department maintains a fleet of reserve vehicles to be available for front lines apparatus down for service and to maintain compliance with our ISO ratings. We keep 3 reserve pumper trucks, per ISO recommendations, and we suffered a blown engine on one of our reserves. The loss of this vehicle makes it difficult to service front line trucks while providing coverage for all 11 fire districts. In consultation with our Legal department the view is that both Ind. Code §§ 5-22-10-5 and -9 provide statutory authorization under which a special purchase may be made for the used Pierce 1998 Saber Rescue Pumper. Recently, the Equipment Services Division entered into a short-term agreement to rent a fire pumper at a daily rate from Sentinel Emergency Solutions to facilitate warranty work on our two newest pumper trucks. Sentinel is also the dealer performing the warranty work on the Rosenbauer apparatus. These two trucks would be going out of state and were each expected to be gone 1 to 2 weeks. This maintenance would have had a substantial negative operational impact on our department and would have left us very vulnerable to a loss of services should we suffer any other need to remove a front line apparatus from service. During this period, Equipment Services has had the ability to inspect the rented apparatus, and our crews have had the opportunity to work out of it. We feel that it would be a positive addition to the fleet and ask that the Board execute the purchase of the apparatus. The original intent for the short-term rental of this truck was to fill the gap left by the warranty service of two front line trucks, but an opportunity has been presented to purchase this apparatus and incur no rental fees. We have provided comparable similarly aged and equipped apparatus for evaluation. The ability to spend more than an afternoon evaluating a prospective used apparatus for purchase is a rare luxury. If the lease and purchase are viewed as a single, protracted transaction, by securing the short-term lease and rolling that expense into a purchase option for the replacement vehicle in order to round out the fleet, a reasonable argument can be made that City personnel both (1) ensured that public safety services would not be seriously impaired by the temporary reduction in available service vehicles, and (2) secured a substantial savings of several thousand dollars from the combined cost of the lease and purchase. Therefore, this transaction should be authorized pursuant to Ind. Code §§ 5-22-10-5, -9. Regards, 4Todtkwaircan Assistant Chief/Services MICHAEL J. DAMIANo TODD L. SKWARCAN ANDRF.W J. MYER JOHN CORTHIE.R FEDERICo RODRIGUEZ, JR ASST. CHIEF OPERATIONS ASST. CHIEF SERVICES ASST. CHIEF EMS ASST. CHIEF TRAINING FIRF. MARSHAL