Ariola and Esposito discuss restricted fire apparatus and replacement delays

Okay, I'd like to ask you to take a look at the screen.

The chart on the screen shows a list of fire apparatus.

The ones highlighted in yellow are restricted from relocation under any circumstances until further notice.

Two questions.

Are the replacement rigs funded?

And what happens when one of those rigs goes out of service for repair?

Is the first due area left unprotected?

Are you able to make out the screen or?

Maybe make it bigger.

You know what?

Yeah, we're going to bring you a copy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So you see the highlighted in yellow shows that these rigs are restricted from relocation under any circumstances.

So this is...

This deals with a contract provision with the fire officers union about the age of first frontline apparatus.

And due to delays, the global supply chain and delays during COVID, our manufacturer, Seagrave, which is in Wisconsin,

is still backlogged on some of these.

I had visited the factory in November.

They had to lay off a significant number of their workers during COVID.

They went to hire them back, and most of them did not come back.

They are now up and running, and they have been for

For a couple of years, they continue to produce and deliver our apparatus, but they are custom-made.

Nobody else in the country, no other fire department in the country, orders apparatus to our specifications because of the heavy-duty use we have, the roads that we have.

And they are all

effectively custom made.

We are continuing to receive them.

They are being delivered.

On this list you have ladder 111, which we have, which will be going into service soon.

So in accordance with the contract, when

and we went through a grievance with the union on this, the grievance and the arbitration, the arbitrator decided that a relocation was not an emergency.

The department's position was opposite that, that relocations are emergencies.

So these apparatus

are not able to be used to relocate to cover other areas.

That does handicap the department at times because there are times we would like to use these to relocate.

So it's fair to say that the first due area is left unprotected if one of these rigs that are unable to be used are in that engine company?

No, it's other areas.

They have to stay in their area.

They cannot be sent to relocate somewhere else.

So if they're operating at a fire, we can send another company to cover them.

We cannot use any of these to be sent to relocate somewhere else.

And besides Ladder 111...

How many others are funded?

Are they all fully funded?

They're all funded and they've all been ordered on schedule.

Yeah.

All of the highlighted.

So just to add to that, this hasn't been a funding issue.

We've put in the orders for the replacement apparatus on what would have been on time.

In fact, we've been putting in the orders earlier and earlier, but because of the manufacturing delays, it has been taking longer for us to receive the vehicles.

But we do track the companies that are in outdated apparatus and in terms of when they're going to be resolved.

So there's about 51 outdated apparatus in the field right now.

There are four pumpers.

We're expecting that we'll have received those and they'll be in service later this calendar year.

There are seven squads, seven high pressure pumpers, and four 75 foot tower ladders that we expect to be delivered and in service by the end of 2026.

There are two 95 foot tower ladders that we expect to be in service by the end of summer.

There are eight tractor drawn aerials that we expect to be in service by early 2027.

And the most backlogged are 23 rear mounts that we anticipate are about a year out.

Okay.

All right.