Quote:It seems that the ground ladders very from year to year. Is due to each company wanting something a little different? I seems hard to imagine the cost per Tower has about doubled since 1997. Has their been any 1 change that has driven the cost up that you know of or is it just the cost of everything going up.
Typically, trucks delivered in series shared the same ladder complement. In some cases, as the Chief of Fire changed, the complement of ladders on any new truck changed. I suppose they needed to feel that they had SOME input . . . and I was just smart enough to let them.After all, they sat in the big chair and wore the funny hat. In other cases, certain Truck Company Captains lobbied the Committee for their own preferred ladder complement. As in most municipalities, Syracuse's neighborhoods varied in their particular buildings and residences, and if a good case could be made that didn't vary TOO greatly from what everyone else was carrying, such requests could frequently be accommodated.
As for the cost of fire apparatus in general and Sutphen towers in particular, we used to figure at least a 3% to 5% increase in price per year - and the prices over the years reflect numbers very close to that. To go from roughly $537,000 in 1997 to over a million dollars in 2017 (that's 20 years) would represent a yearly increase of less that 4%. Remember it's cumulative; the 1997 price of approximately $537,00 plus a 4% increase = $558,251. The next year added another 4% to that higher figure, and so on, and so on. In only about 18 years, with a 4% price increase per year, that 1997 truck price would already be over a million dollars - which is right about where our 2015 truck, 18 years newer than the 1997, came in at. Yes, a new aerial tower is very expensive. And yes, every year there are new bells and whistles that increase the price, as well as new governmental requirements and regulations that do the same. Also, the manufacturer's cost of materials, labor, taxes, etc. all go up. All of these factors enter into that roughly 4% price increase annually.
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