The current Glenbrook is a shell of it's former self and doesn't even come close to resembling the Glenbrook of the 1950's, 60's & 70's. There was a gradual decline as fires fell in the 80's while ambulance calls skyrocketed through the roof essentially becoming Stamford Fire's 2nd ambulance. They put a 3rd career guy on during the day just so a machine could get out the door while the ambulance was downtown again. That's a whole seperate story itself. The new HME E34 has 2 speakers in the bumper. I'm going to assume since having a Q is a big deal in town that it has one of those electronic Q's because of cost.
I did manage to overlook one HME and it was the absolute very first one purchased by Turn of River with city capital project money.
Earlier, Turn of River requested approx. $700,000 for a new truck to replace an aging 1973 Seagrave that had been already refurbed once and was getting tough to keep in service. The last ladder certification it had it was downgraded to fly it no more 80ft and not below 50 degrees. For obvious reasons that was the last time it was certified.
With the ongoing hostilities with the city they reduced the money to $400,000 assuming Turn of River could NEVER buy a new truck for $400,000. Turn of River had a great working relationship with the then city Director of Public Safety, Health and Welfare. He was a big help in scaring up funds to keep Turn of River going and it's his common sense and ability to reason that ultimately cost him his job. He had a reputation before coming to Stamford as being a real hard-assed "hitman" who could make life very difficult while he ended up being a pretty good guy to work with. Well Turn of River had outstanding capital project money of almost $40,000 it hadn't used so it was requested if it could be transferred to the truck request bringing that up to $440,000.
Interestingly a SF&R Lt. happened to own a Smeal dealership several towns away and had kept trying to get his foot in the door in Stamford but citing a conflict of interest they refused to do business with him. He was however all too happy to work a great deal for Turn of River and get a Smeal in Stamford which was shortly followed by selling a new Spartan Smeal engine to Belltown. I don't recall the exact price but it was pretty close to the $440,000. I'm sure the mayor took that as another slap in the face.
I did manage to overlook one HME and it was the absolute very first one purchased by Turn of River with city capital project money.
Earlier, Turn of River requested approx. $700,000 for a new truck to replace an aging 1973 Seagrave that had been already refurbed once and was getting tough to keep in service. The last ladder certification it had it was downgraded to fly it no more 80ft and not below 50 degrees. For obvious reasons that was the last time it was certified.
With the ongoing hostilities with the city they reduced the money to $400,000 assuming Turn of River could NEVER buy a new truck for $400,000. Turn of River had a great working relationship with the then city Director of Public Safety, Health and Welfare. He was a big help in scaring up funds to keep Turn of River going and it's his common sense and ability to reason that ultimately cost him his job. He had a reputation before coming to Stamford as being a real hard-assed "hitman" who could make life very difficult while he ended up being a pretty good guy to work with. Well Turn of River had outstanding capital project money of almost $40,000 it hadn't used so it was requested if it could be transferred to the truck request bringing that up to $440,000.
Interestingly a SF&R Lt. happened to own a Smeal dealership several towns away and had kept trying to get his foot in the door in Stamford but citing a conflict of interest they refused to do business with him. He was however all too happy to work a great deal for Turn of River and get a Smeal in Stamford which was shortly followed by selling a new Spartan Smeal engine to Belltown. I don't recall the exact price but it was pretty close to the $440,000. I'm sure the mayor took that as another slap in the face.
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