02-01-2016 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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As presented and discussed at the February 2, 2015 Council Work Session (staff report attached), staff has engaged in a process to identify a fire vehicle replacement plan that meets all industry standards, addresses all community needs in an effective and efficient manner, and most importantly puts the safety of our community members and staff as priority one. Staff recommendation for 2016 fire vehicle replacement remains the same. Staff recommends that Lino Lakes purchase two light rescue/mini pumpers in 2016. The cost of the recommended purchase is a total of $450,000 ($225,000 each). Staff recommends this purchase be funded with the dollars apportioned to Lino Lakes from the Centennial Fire District (CFD) Capital Replacement fund. Utilizing these funds in this manner is consistent with the intended use of capital replacement funds and enables the City to reduce bonding costs for equipment. The City of Lino Lakes portion of the CFD Capital Replacement fund is projected to be $744,332.41. This projected balance does not include any assets that have been purchased since the August 2014 asset distribution process. These new assets will be distributed as outlined in the JPA during the CFD Operations Committee meeting on January 14, 2016, and ratified by the CFD Steering Committee at its January 28, 2016 meeting. The purchase of two light rescue/mini pumpers will: 1. prolong the useful life of aged fire vehicles in our fleet; 2. address significant repair costs and out of service time for older apparatus; 3. reduce the size of the fire vehicle inventory; 4. improve the City of Lino Lakes Insurance Services Office (ISO) fire vehicle rating score; and 5. provide options to reduce future replacement costs. As noted in the February 2, 2015 presentation and report to Council, the light rescue/mini pumpers would be utilized as "first out" vehicles on nearly all of the fire calls for service in Lino Lakes. This will enable El 1 and E21 to be utilized as "second out" vehicles, greatly reducing their usage in the hopes of prolonging their useful life. Since purchasing Ell and E21 used from City of Woodbury in spring of 2015, the apparatus has been used for training staff. To date in 2015, Lino Lakes has incurred a total of $15,514.59 in repair costs for these pieces of apparatus. E21 was utilized more frequently for training and consequently accounted for $10,155.69 of the total repairs and Ell was utilized less frequently and accounted for $5,358.90. This demonstrates that increased usage will likely result in increased repair costs. With the purchase of two light rescue/mini pumpers, staff would recommend that fire vehicle inventory be reduced as follows: 1. Sell both grass units (1994 Chev S10 and 1994 GMC PU) which are outfitted for use during grass fires. The new light rescue/mini pumper can be utilized in the same fashion and will provide more equipment and better service in response to grass fires.