MaximSnorkel: This will be the first county-owned Quantum. Personally, I think the Quantum is butt ugly and would settle for an IMPEL just on looks alone. One of the reasons the FRD is going w/the Impel for other apparatus (engines, ladders/towers, rescues) is due to the fact the county's Department of Vehicle Services (DVS) (i.e., the vehicle repair shop) demands to have Detroit Diesel since that is what most of the mechanics work on besides whatever is in the nation's largest (I think FXCO still holds the record) school bus fleet and the Department of Solid Waste has been buying Macks for the last few years (they get whatever they want cause of the huge revenues generated for tipping at the transfer station next to the Fire Academy) so I think that's how the Mack chassis slid in for the tankers (water tenders, whatever you wanna call them). Technically, the DVS folks own the fire trucks and just lets us use them!
Rheems1: I personally don't know of any advantages to having a volunteer owned rig versus a county rig. The Apparatus Division eventually has to approve the specs in order for the rig to be purchased and their is a boiler plate spec that outlines basics for volunteer purchased equipment. Many of the volunteer companies are approaching the point where they can't raise sufficient funds to pay for new rigs despite fund drive letters, bingo one or two nights per week and hall rentals. In "my" perfect world, they would all be county-owned rigs and if there were volunteers who wanted to and were certified to ride, they could ride as auxiliary firefighters. After all, we have auxiliary police officers in the police department but they don't have police cars that say "Mason District Auxiliary Police Department".....
And now, I hope, my first apparatus portrait to appear on FirePics
Medic 428
2010 Freightliner M2 with body by Horton
Rheems1: I personally don't know of any advantages to having a volunteer owned rig versus a county rig. The Apparatus Division eventually has to approve the specs in order for the rig to be purchased and their is a boiler plate spec that outlines basics for volunteer purchased equipment. Many of the volunteer companies are approaching the point where they can't raise sufficient funds to pay for new rigs despite fund drive letters, bingo one or two nights per week and hall rentals. In "my" perfect world, they would all be county-owned rigs and if there were volunteers who wanted to and were certified to ride, they could ride as auxiliary firefighters. After all, we have auxiliary police officers in the police department but they don't have police cars that say "Mason District Auxiliary Police Department".....
And now, I hope, my first apparatus portrait to appear on FirePics
Medic 428
2010 Freightliner M2 with body by Horton