Village Council - Special Meeting

We're going to get started tonight. Thank you for being here. We got a special council meeting in regards to a buyer truck purchase. Pastor, can you do a prayer for us since you were here with Pastor Steve? Thank you. We'll do a prayer and then pledge. Uh let me pray. Lord, again, we just uh thank you for everything that you do. And Lord, tonight I do pray for our first responders. I ask that you give them protection. I ask that you give them wisdom and guidance. Lord, I let ask you that you just light the path that they have. Lord, I pray for our council and uh all the supporting uh actors, so to speak. Lord, continue to give them strength and uh perseverance also. Lord, we just thank you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, pastor. Uh, roll call. Zed here. Basset here. Here. Miller here. Conw.

All right. Um, We'll kind of put this in a a cap. Fire department's been uh looking at proposals. We talked at last council meeting. They went back had a meeting to look at uh the stuff that Mickey sent in. Um then they had the conversations with Mickey with a couple of the other um companies that were submitting bids. But at this point in time, they're ready to make a decision, I believe, but they want to have council present. Um this is a big big purchase for the fire department every big purchase for the community. Um it's a truck bar for many many years and uh they put a lot of effort and time into looking at what is needed, what they want, all that thing. So at that point I will pass it on to who's your spokesperson? You

he will be the spokesperson. But I want to personally say I want to thank y'all for taking time out of y'all's day and coming. I realize this is a big purchase for the village, but the hope and the goal today is to hopefully have everyone listen and hear uh our side of it and why we are doing what we are wanting to do and here to answer all the questions that you guys may have to help get to a decision so we could get this truck moving forward in the process of getting built so we can meet the deadlines of FEMA and that sort of thing. Um, so our ultimate goal today is to try to have everyone listen. So then that way you guys have an insight when going in and making a decision on which way we want to go. So that's the that's the end goal. Uh Blake uh will now pack pass out a little bit of literature and again all of us is here from the truck committee to answer any questions that you guys may have. So thanks again. Thanks, Chief.

All right. So, maybe on all of you the proposals from both Pierce and Suffin. I just this is just some notes as far as advantages and disadvantages to both. Um, no matter which truck it is, they're both going to be great trucks for the uh for the village. We're just prefer. Um, but they will both be great trucks. Um, sure. Um, so we had uh both quotes. I went through them uh Tuesday night line by line. Uh made a few tweaks to them. Um some of them were to accommodate the requirements within the grant. Um others were to make sure that both quotes were quoting the same things as far as what equipment was in included, what options. There was a few things that were missed on uh on either of the quotes. So, uh, so the two quotes that I sent out, those are the updated, both of them are putting zero down, um, full payment at at the delivery of the trucks. Um, so I guess, like I said, I just wanted to get everybody together, get you the information, uh, let you guys ask questions, uh, we can answer the questions, um, and just go from there. The more time we spend making the decision, the the more pressure we're going to put on to the manufacturer because the end date is not changing no matter what. Because of the grant, they have to deliver by September 29th of 2027.

You say they have to deliver. If they don't, there's just a penalty. They pay $100 a day. $100 a day penalty. Yes. So, if it's December, it's 60 days past and they eat $6,000 on a $1.9 million purchase. Correct. We we lose $800 some thousand dollar in grant money. Correct. No. No. That would be that's part my understanding is that is part of the uh that's where the penalty is. Okay. Okay. In order for them to miss it, they have to they can file for extensions and things like that. Just want to make sure we don't miss that. That's what that penalty clause is. I just want to make sure that we're not risking our grant. Correct.

Cuz $2 million project if they lose $6,000, big deal. I mean, like I said to you guys, um that my position, you know, you guys are leaders in the fire service. Uh, I rely up to you to pick pick what engine and truck you guys think is going to best suit your needs. Um, the only question I had is I kept saying I want to make sure Mickey and you have good communication to move the paperwork through his office, FEMA and the grant money because it's, you know, we don't have it yet, right? Yeah. Yeah. But we talked and we need it. We get

We talked with Mickey during our meeting. Um, I've been in communication with him since. He has seen both of these quotes. He's went through them. Um, did he see the revised ones up? Yes. Yes. Yep. He reviewed those yesterday. All right. So, he he is the ones that I sent you guys are what he has. He did email Cheryl. I'm just going to be honest. He he said he had a couple concerns. He doesn't say what. Said he found a couple things and for us to call him if no problem. I can read it to you. It just said uh without creating an issue, make sure I uh can be called to weigh in because I found a couple of items of concern. So, I don't know which proposal that was. He didn't say. Yeah, that's the second.

Yeah, he he had two questions on the Suffin proposal. Um, I got the information, answered his questions on that. Um, he did not have any feedback on on anything else. And that was yesterday. That was yesterday. Yeah. Were his questions just to make sure that they were apples to apples because I know that was kind of the biggest concern with with the grant, right? That the grant states that we have to find um comparable trucks. So, were that like were his questions around that? No. No. No, because the it's just about the the features.

He had one question on the light bar uh facing forward. Um the diagram had two diodes that were blanks and he said we should want to have those be full. So I contacted Andy. He said yes, those will be full um LEDs. And the other thing he had was he asked about a Q siren and it he just missed it in the it was actually it was there. Okay. So, I showed him what line it was on, and those are the only two questions or concerns that he One of the things that was reported back to us is that um the truck could potentially be too long to maneuver on our roads. Did he ever bring that up with you? So, Eric asked the question.

I'm just ask Eric asked the question to me um about the length of our current truck that we have sitting over there compared to this truck or either of these trucks. Right before I came over, I measured our current truck. It is 45 ft 10 in long and the wheelbase is 246 in. Okay.

On the on the sheet the the Excel sheet I gave you, the Pierce is 41T1 in overall length and the wheelbase is 249 in. And the Sutman is 35T 3/4 in or sorry 45 ft 3/4 inch long with a 243 in place. So very comparable to what we currently have and we can maneuver down any street. Thank you for doing that for me.

Like I said, we're here for questions. Um do you want to you want to throw out what what truck you're referring to?

Um we as a committee, we would like to go with the sub. Um, like I said, there's advantages and disadvantages to both manufacturers, both trucks. Um, it's kind of why I laid them out there for you. Um, there again, either one going to be a great truck for the village and last long, but looking at the way the truck is built, some options, some just the the specifics between the two manufacturers, that's why um knows it out for us. Uh, one of the big things is the service after the sale. Um, the manufacturer is down by Columbus, 2 and a half, three hours away. Um, they stock all the parts. If we need anything, we can get it. We can literally jump in the car, go pick it up, drive it back, and put it on the truck if we needed to. Um, I know that, uh, Pierce also has a service facility in Finley.

Um, so they they also have road crew and people available to make repairs. Um, but it's not the factory. So, I mean, but with the way you can UPS overnight and everything, you can get parts pretty quick as long as they're on the shelf somewhere. Um, so, but like I said, the that was one of our big things was the fact that the factory is right there and supported locally. Um, Pearson Building, Wisconsin, they have the same advantage to the departments in their area. I have no problems with the suffin. I was just as long as Mickey was. My biggest concern on that one was the delivery because initially it said 18 to 23 months and we're already five six months in.

Yeah. And I was afraid of missing out on the grant. So what uh what Suffin is doing um they're actually pulling a stock truck that's already in their queue and replacing it with our truck. Um so it's not 18 to 22 or whatever months from when we signed the contract. They are actually going to pull another truck and put ours in its place. Okay. Um, that's how that's how they're able to get the delivery that we need. As long as Mickey is open, I mean, talk to I'd like to call him to call him and ask him care.

No, he he's he told me he's available if we need to call him. He's he would be available. Two salesmen are the same way. They both said they would be available if we needed questions for them as well. Watch it be the wrong number.

Yes, sir. You've reached the voicemail from my desk. Please record your message. When you finish recording, you may hang up or press one for more options. To send it back, press number five.

Hang up and call back. Hey, Mickey. Mayor Mike Bar here. We're in our meeting here in Village Hall. Uh we've got our fire committee and and council together. you had mentioned something about calling you if you had a couple concerns. We'd like to maybe ask you what those concerns were uh with the two proposals. So, when you get a moment, please give us a call um as soon as possible. Um you have my cell phone. We will talk to you later. Thank you.

That number on the paper. How do you call that number? cell phone. Is there any more questions you guys have regarding uh money? I mean, I said something to Cheryl like funding for this. I mean, coming up with the additional money. Um, we have to both contracts say we have to have payment in full upon delivery. Right. Correct.

So, the peers that they're offering is a couple months from now. So I had I had mentioned that would be a concern to him u being that quick delivery. Um he said there are payment options as well um that we could look at if we needed to. Um there also may be an option of obviously he gave us his best delivery. Uh it could be if we actually don't want it this year and we wanted to push delivery back until early 27. Um that would probably be an option as well. The only other delivery I guess for the Pierce being soon is we're having some issues with our current fire trucks. Will they will we be able to be okay without borrowing until uh September of 27?

Call. Hello. Hang on. Mickey, can you hear me? man. Um, so the issues we're having with 504 are issues we have with 504. They still need repairs getting replaced. It's still going to be our main bumper. Um, so the issues that's kind of a different conversation as far as that goes. Um, but yes, this could and potentially would be the first out. Hey Mickey, Michael Bar here. Sorry, Mr. Call. How are you, sir? Good. You

um you are on speaker phone. Uh we've got everybody in the room here. Um that needs to be. So, like I said, we're just starting discussion on uh the two different quotes. Um right now, we're we're leaning towards the suffen. Did I say that right? Yep. Um you had mentioned maybe some concerns. I don't know if it was with that contract or maybe the Pierce. So, uh, council wanted to see what, uh, your thoughts were on that. Okay. So, I put the two of them side by side and here's what I came up with.

So, there's a price difference of 16,444 as it says, which is I know the best. The biggest thing that got a hold of me was this. Um when I looked at the sub the aerial had a I mean obviously vertical reach of 100t the horizontal reach was 90 foot 5 in. So the pierce is a vertical of 107t and a horizontal reach of 100 ft. Okay. Um the sun has a 450 horsepower engine. The pier is come it comes with a 510. The minimum ground ladder requirements for an aerial is 115 ft which is what Sutton has. The Pierce has 135 ft ground ladders as part of the deal. So the only other thing in there is that the delivery for this is October of 2027 which I know can be moved back to September. So that's not a big deal. and the delivery for the beers is in August of 26. So with those two in mind, that is the only thing that I found as differences across the board.

Why are those details concern differences? But either one of those trucks, if we picked either one of those, we have no no concerns on not getting the grant. Say that again. Eric wanted to know both those proposals are a sound proposal to make sure that we get the FEMA money, the grant money. No issues with that.

Um, when you and I'm just throwing this out there, you fire guys talk distance and height and you know all that kind of thing where you know councils coming from a different angle. you know, we're looking at the cost and viability of the grant, which we were fortunate to have. Um, but a small town, I mean, little bit of differences in the in the ladder, length, height kind of thing is that to me is not a big factor, I guess, because of the the area where we're at.

So, the the differences in the length of reach and everything is due to the Pierce is a rear-mounted aerial, which is why it's 107 foot compared to Suffin is a 100 foot midmount. Um, so the suffin the base of the ladder is in the middle of the truck just like we currently have. It can swing all the way around. So in order for a rear mount to get the same reach out the front out front of the truck, they have to have that's why they're longer. So as far as what we can reach forward or back, obviously being a rear mount 107, they can reach further back, but over the front um they're compile. Yeah, he's not rolling. Yeah, he's not wrong at all. Okay.

Yeah, we weren't sure if you saw some major discrepancies with the quote, you know, and and stuff like that. So, basically, it's just, you know, the the units and how they're set up and what they can do, basically. A little bit Yeah, that's that's the only thing. Okay. Okay. Anybody else have any more questions for Mickey? Nope. Okay. Uh, any questions for us, Mickey? No, guys, I'm good. Okay. Well, we'll continue with our meeting. If we come up with something else, we'll give you a call back. But if not, then we'll uh have Cheryl or or Blake and the committee let you know what we chose. Okay. And also, by the way, like I said, like I told you before, do not sign any contracts until all the counters, please. Yep. You already looked at them. Yeah. All right. All right. Have a good night. Yeah. Thank you. You take care.

See you. Y that we caught all those things. I want to double check it, you know, or have other lady look at them. Yeah, that's why that's why I sent them to him yesterday. They he viewed them before I sent you guys. I waited to send you guys after he looked at them and okay. All right. So back I'm just asking financial I mean do we want share what your thoughts on sooner or later does it is it an impact

no no it doesn't matter no I can I ask another question about um the trucks So once we get this truck, the we those other two trucks, the ladder truck and the 1980s truck, we can no longer use. They will be sold. Right. But my question is, if we have one in the shop, can the Quint do it all? Yes. Yes, it can. It can do everything. Does you normally have two though? Like you would normally have one and then a backup. And we

So that's the difference between a quint and an aerial. Um, so the quint has more water on it. Has all the basically it's it's has everything that an engine or a pumper or main pumper would have. It's got a 2,000gallon per minute pump on it. It's got uh the suffin has 600 gallons of water on it. It's got foam capability. Um, so basically it will do everything that the pump will do, but also has a ladder. I know it's kind of a Swiss knife of trucks. I just my fear is is that it the second that truck arrives those two have to be taken out of um commission. So I just didn't want us to be stuck with one truck when you guys are normally used to working out of two. That would be my only fear.

Yeah. A queen is considered a combo truck. So engine generally in real world does one job. A truck generally does a different job. So you put the both together which is why it's called a quint because there's five options. Yep. It does a job of both aerial ladder, both a ladder truck and an engine together at the same time. They do at the same time. You could do the same thing. Okay. All right. I just that was just my fear for you guys.

Yeah. If we're using that as our uh first line engine out the door. Um when we get to the se to the the fire or whatever, it's going to be used as an engine. As soon as we get on scene, we're not raising a ladder and doing any kind of ladder operations. We're there. We're pulling hand lines. We're making entry. um we're getting hooked to a hydrant. We're once we get things established and um you know, we're search and we get to the point where we're venting a roof or um maybe we're doing a uh a rescue from a second story window or something of that nature, that's when we would put the aerial into use.

Um so it's not going to be like you see on TV get they get there and they immediately put their put their ladder up in the air and start flowing water and that's that's not the case. We would use it as it would be an engine first and then it would go as a gear unit. Now on the flip side, if we have if we're not using it as our initial engine on the door, our primary engine, so 504 would do that. This would be second or third truck in and it would be potentially up in the air right away just depending on the situation. Um, other question um Mickey mentioned about making sure people were licensed. So we already do all that. Um, so the the four uh ISC requirements, the 100, 200, 700, and 800, all done before we go to fire one.

Okay. Um, DOT physical as well. Okay. Because we have we have to have the DOT physical for our tanker. Perfect. I just don't want to bring in the truck that no one can run. Yep. That is also question. Yeah. Did you Okay. Yeah. Thank you. We already knew that. And that is an all-in price. I mean, it's you're not going to Are you going to Is it fully I guess all your hoses, everything you need? Yep. That's one of the radios. Yep. Uh the radios will come out of these trucks. That's why I wonder if we're going to be able to take some equipment from the old

Yep. Um we didn't get any new packs, so the packs will come off the old trucks and go into this one. Um some a lot of the hand tools will come out of the old trucks and go into this one. We do have $20,000 in uh tool allowance built into it um for some certain tools, hand tools that we need that are we don't we either we don't have them currently or um we need additional um sorry to buy harnesses.

Um yeah, harnesses that thing those kind of things that um that's why we have that $20,000 into that for those um specific things there. Um, but all the ladders, all the hose, um, that'll all come on the truck. That's actually one of the things that Pierce I had Pierce add into their quote cuz they did not have the hose in. Um, so they added, uh, 700T of 5 in, 250T of inch and 3/4, and like 200 ft of two and a half. Um, that was all already in the stuff in the court. You said we'd sell the other two. Yeah. I mean, are we talking 100,000 for both? Maybe not that much. No, they can't be sold as fire trucks.

They can't. So, grant part of the FEMA requirements is they cannot go into fire service for they have to be removed from the fire service. There are some loopholes. They can get them back in. Um, but in order to get it reertified after that point, they would have to be up to the current requirements, which nobody's going to spend. So, they're parade vehicles from that point on. They're going to be parade vehicles. I've seen them down to I've seen them in talked about Mexico. Yeah. Some people have the name on the front. Yeah. But like the the ladder truck that quite possibly would go to like a tree service. I've seen several tree people that um have used old fire trucks as their aerial for doing tree services, things like that.

Use them. Now Vicki did say that the ladder is the one that has to be completely out of fire. So that's done. That's how we understand. You did say the 50 uh 503 that pumper can be sold as a fire truck. So that's how I understood it. So that's that's what Mickey told me. So that money which I would imagine might be 30 to $40,000 if that. So what are you going to do with the truck that's out there? Did you find out what it needs to fix? They are

the 504 is out there being assessed now. Um, basically there was a diode in the engine engine harness that burnt. Um, doing in the diagnostics from what they told me when that diode burns, it is a uh ignition or the engine control module and the ignition something with or not the injector pulse controller or something like that. They got a new control module on order. Uh they were programming it up in Fort Wayne, I believe this morning when I talked to them. Um so when they get that once it's programmed, they'll get that put in and they were still working on getting the other part. So they're hopeful though. So it might be feasible to fix it.

Oh, absolutely. It's a it's a lot better lot different fix than a memo. Yeah. Yeah. So when you said that, so we're looking probably in the $6,000 range if if those two fix it and parsley on top of that. Then you can use it so you get absolutely needed. Yeah. Since Fish brought it up and it's got absolutely nothing to do with buying a new one. What's the timeline for getting rid of 504 then? Just so council's kind of got an idea. What are we looking at? Anytime. So in the fire service trucks are 20-year trucks. That truck's a 20 20.

So now you 30 years with the quint. Oh yeah. That is what you guys. Absolutely. So I mean the only reason I brought it up so council can start planning on buying another truck. We will need to start looking at Yeah, a new frontline engine as well, right? And we've talked about that with Cheryl with, you know, ambulances and making sure that that we're on a rotation so that they're not surprise investments. And I actually asked Cheryl. I said, "Do we have like where we put money away every year to buy a firet truck?" She said, "No, we don't. We should, but we don't. There's never money to do that with." They have written it in as contingencies, and unfortunately the budget never allows.

Exactly. And that's just the way it is. The money is not there in order to do that. Ideally, we need to prioritize. We would plan on, you know, 20 every 20 years if you we planned on replacing them because that's their life cycle. No, but obviously we are exceeding our life cycle. We we've proven that most of our trucks over there are exceeding that. So we still got the yellow one. No, that that one's been gone for a while. Now,

so ultimately, you know, we want to get this plant all all done, but there are options to get used pumpers to buy us some more time for a lot less cost. So, I mean, there's options out there. You know, if we want to get off of this rotation where, you know, the quint was just a large expense and we want to not spend so much money, there are other options out there. So, I mean, uh, definitely a lot more options to save some money at this point, you know. So, the new pumper right now is about a million dollars.

Yeah, they're one oneish for a for a new bumper. Um, but there again, if we if we go used, there's obviously you'll save money buying something used, 10 years old, something like that, off of a a mid to larger department. Um, they still have life left in them at that point. you can't use any grant money toward that. So, that would not be an option. It would be a straight purchase for the village um if we were to do that. So, um there's several different options um as far as an engine um as far as our main bumper. Um but there's a chance that we fix 54 and we don't have any more issues with it for extended period of time either or we get it back and 6 months later we have another issue. Well, each year in 504, each year it's had one major incident over the last three or four years.

So, last year we put like close to $9,000 into it. Then now we're back to that was for uh head gasket blue. So, like there was an engine issue. Now something else is going on in the engine area which is several more thousand. My concern was just that the building is just going to get tired of putting money into an engine that just keeps on falling apart or not being reliable. My only concern. No matter what, we have to keep fixing it. But at some point, we have to decide we're done putting money into it and go a different route.

And that's part of the reason we're getting the new Quint is because we're getting rid of two trucks. So now you don't have maintenance on either of those two trucks. You have a brand new truck that's going to last you a lot longer. And like he said 20 years and you're like, "Oh, you promised us 30." This truck, it I something I think this stainless steel body's a stainless steel body.

Steel body, so nothing's going to rust there. Um the ladder itself is not welded like a lot of them are. And as a welder, I can test out this. Uh they're not welded, so there's no no welds that ever crack on the uh suffin. They are all huff bolted, which is nice because bolts have a shear strength that's a lot higher than most welds. So the whole ladder there is huck bolden. You never have to worry about weld cracking or getting welds rewelded if it did crack. So you don't have heat problem there. Stresses weld whatever cracks it. Um but all in all that stuff aerial does have a 30-year warranty on it. Um the the whole truck as a whole as a big truck mechanicish that whole truck is all standard part. So, it should be any parts that most truck manufacturers will have on shelf. For most parts, we call over to Bokis and uh Butler uh not Bokis, um

yeah, Bokeis and Butler or over to um New Haven and they should have most any part for it. So, that's never a problem. And then if anything ever does happen, it's right down the two hours and half hour.

And they also have a road crew that will come to you as well, which is I guess nicer convenient. And they overnight parts to use straight here or they can hop on the road. and there's something major that will put your app service, they guarantee a certain timeline to get to you to get it back in service. So those are kind of the comforting things that we took into effect in picking who we picked.

Yeah, I do that too. They have a team that comes in. So I win if we go with Suffin when they come in here. Soften has a whole team that will come with them and tell you everything that you do and don't want to know about the truck, the ins and outs. They hold trainings about the truck. Whether you go there or come here, they conduct classes, trainings on everything about the truck that you bought. It's a whole big inservice and class about it. Is that part of the package as well? both.

So, with the package is a three-day training where they'll come here, they'll train us, train the department on um doing different different times of the day so we can catch everybody on different shifts. Um but they do have additional training that we can go to uh or have them come do. Um, I know when we went down there, they were setting up for a uh basically like a maint PM class that um go in and basically go through their training as far as everything how it all needs PM mostly like departments that are doing all that for they have on staff the mechanics that are doing all that stuff. So, um, but they do have multiple different trainings that are available that we can go to.

I'm assuming all of them do, don't they? I was going to say it's like no different than anyone. I mean, that kind of money, they all offer that. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I know that when this first started, we had these conversations with Mickey and he said, you know, 1.1 mil. And when the numbers first came back as 1.8, um, obviously we were a bit shocked. I really want to thank you guys for doing your due diligence, going out there, getting these sideby-side quotes, and also educating us because I don't know what you do. You guys know what you do. You guys know what you need. I just know financially what that looks for the village. and being able to compromise like you said is really important for me. So I mean I do support your guys's option here. Um like Nikki said there it really wasn't that much difference in the end. I would like to have Mickey look over of course one last time but I would make a motion for the sub. I second that.

G roll call. Said yes. Hegley. Yes. Basset. Yes. Gwick. Yes. Miller. Yes. Lena. Yes, very good. But with that, um, send it to Mickey one more time. I guess tonight he's already got it. Click send. That's fine. Uh, but we have to have a resolution, right? Sign it. I know. Suffano extended their contract. They extended till the 15th of March. But we can't really we we can't sign the contract until the resolution's done. That's the kicker. Is he going to We could have it probably here by what the next meeting, but 16,

right? If he's okay with the village motion tonight that he knows he's um something has the contract, he's got to get the paperwork filled out properly. Makes sense. If you had any questions before Cheryl, we we can call them now if you want. Up to you guys. No. So, with that being said, is there anything else? We got like I said, we can't talk anything.

I know. I'm not saying about anything and not anything else. Again, thank you for your time and your due diligence and putting the proposal together. I know we've had a lot of discussion. You guys a lot of discussion. So, I think this was a a great meeting to finalize the the plan. Um, and we'll keep moving forward. So, thank you very much for being here, everybody. And thank you guys. Thank you guys. We got a motion to adjourn in a second. roll. Yeah. Skelet. Yes. Miller. Yes. Elena. Yes. Wick. Yes. Eggley.

Yes. Heat. Heat.