By John Schwing

WESTPORT — Funds totaling $2.225 million for Fire Department vehicles and equipment won unanimous approval Tuesday from the Representative Town Meeting, underscoring a “sense of urgency” cited by Fire Chief Michael Kronick to avoid rapidly rising costs.

Three separate funding requests were submitted by fire officials for consideration at the RTM’s special session, conducted via Zoom. The proposed appropriations included:

• $1.885 million for two “Type 1” fire engines to replace two Sutphen engines, both more than 20 years old, that “have reached their end of life.”
• $195,000 for two new full-size SUVs, either hybrid or all-electric vehicles, to replace 2009 and 2012 Ford Expeditions.
• $145,700 for new source-capture and diesel-extraction systems at each of the town’s fire stations.

All three of the requests won unanimous approval from the 29 RTM members in attendance at Tuesday’s session.

While the two new fire engines would be financed by bonding, the SUVs and diesel-extraction systems would be purchased with allocations from the town’s $9 million capital and non-recurring budget account.

RTM members’ discussion of the appropriations was universally supportive of the Fire Department requests, but several expressed concern about overall looming debt obligations facing the town in the coming years for large capital projects, including the planned replacement or renovation of Long Lots Elementary School.

Inflation and supply-chain issues also were cited by fire officials as challenging factors in planning to acquire the new equipment.

Seth Braunstein, of District 6, the chairman of the RTM’s Finance Committee, noted the “eye-opening” rate of inflation as the primary reason for ordering both fire engines this year, instead of buying one this year and the other next year.

Under the Fire Department’s initial plans, the first engine would have been ordered this fiscal year at an estimated cost of $700,000, and the second, costing about $750,000, would be purchased in the next fiscal year.

But fire officials changed course and proposed purchasing both fire engines this year after learning that Marion Body Works, the firm that will build the engines, forecasts a “4 percent month-over-month” increase in costs, according to figures presented at the meeting.

Complicating the process, fire officials said, is a squeeze on parts availability caused by supply-chain issues, which in turn increases the length of time to build the fire engines. Delivery time for the new engines currently is estimated at 400 to 600 days.

Those challenges, Kronick said, prompted fire officials to seek approval to buy two engines as quickly as possible, since each of the trucks they will replace has racked up more than 120,000 miles and 12,000 hours on the job.

If the department has to use the older engines for longer than the time anticipated for delivery of the new trucks, the chief said, both will need rebuilt motors at a cost of $50,000 each and one will need a rebuilt pump at a cost of $30,000 to $50,000, among other maintenance expenses.

Demand outstripping supply of all-electric SUVs also is complicating efforts to acquire “greener” vehicles to replace the two Expeditions, Kronick said.

That means there are no deals on purchasing such vehicles, and their availability is limited, he said.

Deputy Chief Nicholas Marsan said the plan to acquire new equipment extracting trucks’ diesel exhaust fumes from fire stations — replacing systems nearly 25 years old — puts “employees’ health as a primary concern.”

Marsan noted, as with the other appropriation requests, rising costs were factored into the decision to buy the new diesel-extraction systems now. Replacement parts, he said, no longer are being made for the department’s existing systems and re-conditioned parts are increasingly difficult to acquire.

John Schwing, the Westport Journal consulting editor, has held senior editorial and writing posts at southwestern Connecticut media outlets for four decades. Learn more about us here.