The gamble a few years ago by a previous administration to enter into a city-wide contract to replace just about their entire fleet as well as any machines purchased for the 5 volunteer depts. using city funds with HME based on their initial purchase of a demo in 2002 has been nothing short of a disaster.
To say the HME's are garbage is being kind. Their 2010 rescue literally falling apart was returned to the factory to be rebuilt. The dept. repair shop has been overwhelmed with repairs, often running out of reserve machines and borrowing engines from the volunteer depts. and neighboring towns as it did last week borrowing New Canaan's reserve Mack CF.
While still figuring this mess out they even had the PD return the 1990 Mack MR Ranger rescue they had previously given them. The PD had already repainted and applied their graphics so it never made it into service and is probably going to auction at some point.
2014 and 15 they're anticipating 2 more engines, a rescue and a truck. Those 2 engines will probably be assigned to Engines 7 and 8 wanting that extra water in the north part of town.
The city career dept. (downtown) never had to really worry about water before but since the previous mayor removed the career staffing from the former combination depts, reassigning them to the career dept making the combination depts (Glenbrook, Belltown and Turn of River) essentially into volunteer depts. This was done to Springdale in the mid/late 1990's when Engine 7 was formed and assigned there.
Glenbrook co-existed with a city career engine in their house (Engine 6) until the career guys were removed in 2008 and are now a shell of their former selves and "exist" with barely and handful of members. Because they place nice (rolled over) with the former mayor they were "rewarded" with a new HME engine in 2009 replacing their perfectly good 1983 Sutphen they were better off with. That Sutphen is now a city reserve engine at the drill field.
Belltown and Turn of River have no city career presence in their firehouses although 2 city career engines (Engines 8 & 9) were organized and placed in Turn of River's district near Turn of River's two stations, only one of which remains open since they were forced to sell their 1995 Seagrave (Engine 61) to pay bills when the city was financially squeezing them and they lacked the volunteer manpower to operate both. The city career engines are houseed in tent-like structures with Engine 8 in a construction trailer at an elderly housing complex and Engine 9 at Stamford EMS.
Long Ridge is the only dept. that continues to operate as usual having been an early victim in the "civil war" that erupted in the mid 1990's when the former mayor assigned city career Engine 6 to their Station 2 after Long Ridge requested more money to hire 2 more career drivers so that station could operate 24 hours a day. Just previously the city received a consultant's report identifying Engine 6 as unnecessary so needing a "home" he conned Long Ridge's then chief to declare he had an "emergency" giving the mayor the power to take that action. That led to years of lawsuits Long Ridge ultimately won and continue as a combination dept. although the occupation of Engine 6 did result in members choosing to leave preferring to not volunteer their time in a hostile enviroment. Long Ridge Engine 74 did co-exist with Engine 6 in that station until hostilities became so bad it was close to becoming physical so the Long Ridge career driver on duty at that time chose to abandon the station and relocate to Station 1 until the lawsuit was decided and the city was forced to remove Engine 6 and had to fund the hiring of the 2 additional career drivers.
This is far from over with a recent city charter change but nobody able to agree on anything, previous court decisions handed down but yet unresolved and ongoing court cases so who knows.
The original HME demo purchased in 2002 I believe at the New England Chief's Convention. It was initially assigned to Engine 4 replacing their 1989 Mack CF Ranger Telesqurt. The Telesqurt had been remounted from their 1974 Oshkosh Duplex Pierce. Here it is assigned to Reserve Engine 14.
Rescue 1's current 2010 HME rescue that continues to fall apart. After repeatedly making the same mistake over and over by virtually every city dept. and getting burned all the time, the City of Stamford hasn't quite figured out they get what they pay for. Photographer unknown.
Rescue 1's former 1995 Freightliner Hackney rescue and currently assigned as Rescue 2 (reserve for R1 and placed in service as R2 during big events and natural disasters). If I remember right, this was bought to be used temporarily as R1 while the 1990 Mack was being refurbed and then was going to be assigned to Hazmat 1 but that never happened.
Rescue 1's former 1990 Mack MR Ranger rescue. First photo is R1 when new. Second photo is R1 after being refurbed and reassigned as Rescue 2 and the third photo is while Stamford PD had it. This machine replaced the original Rescue 1 placed into service in the mid 1980's. that truck was a 1974 Ford F350 Welch the city agreed to "buy" from Turn of River for $5000 which the city then cut Turn of River's budget by essentially stealing the truck from Turn of River. The FD photos are courtesy of Frank Wegloski and the PD photo is courtesy of Eddie Rondano.
Rescue 1's original truck, 1974 Ford F350 Welch formerly Turn of River Rescue 66 when they replaced this with a 1983 Mack Mc RSI rescue which was in service until a few years ago, ironically replaced by a city bid HME. The R1 photo is courtesy of Frank Wegloski, the R66 photo is mine.
Awesome topic!! I've read in some of the trade journals and online sites about some the lawsuits in the City, but haven't ever been able to really wrap my head around the entire thing - this was an excellent description.
Not to take away from the discussion of the apparatus, but two major items I see from what you wrote:
1. Is the city attempting to make the SFD an all-career FD? Is one needed, or do the combination departments have enough staffing to make a difference?
2. Is there some reason that the continued purchase of problematic apparatus continues?
Thanks!
Taylor Goodman Captain - Henrico County (VA) Division of Fire Fire Chief - Huguenot VFD, Powhatan, VA
Quote:Awesome topic!! I've read in some of the trade journals and online sites about some the lawsuits in the City, but haven't ever been able to really wrap my head around the entire thing - this was an excellent description.
Not to take away from the discussion of the apparatus, but two major items I see from what you wrote:
1. Is the city attempting to make the SFD an all-career FD? Is one needed, or do the combination departments have enough staffing to make a difference?
2. Is there some reason that the continued purchase of problematic apparatus continues?
Thanks!
The answer to question #1 is technically "no". The south end of the City of Stamford was covered by an all-career department. The north end was covered by several volunteer departments that were significantly funded by the City along with a few career engine companies that were placed into the volunteer districts due to poor response from the volunteer stations. The City was attempting to merge the VFDs into what would be a second fire department with 50+ career firefighters, funded by the City, but lacking the same direct oversight they have of the existing career department.
The City conducted a referendum last year regarding changes to the City Charter. One of the issues put before the voters was whether or not to transition to a single city-wide combination fire department with a single city-wide Fire Chief rather than the fragmented system currently in place. The citizens voted for a single department structure with career and volunteer personnel.
If you want some addition information and have a few weeks with nothing to do, there's a rather large thread on the EMTBravo forum discussing the matter.
Just to add my little bit of information about the SFD, the "city" of Stamford is covered by the career department, while the "town" of Stamford is covered by the "Big 5", 5 seperate, independantly operated volunteer fire companies. Each volunteer company has its own chief. What the administration (mayor, etc.) is attempting to do is eliminate the "two" departments and put the control in one fire chief, essentially creating one department. This has been a long drawn out battle with pros and cons on both sides, lawyers and judges getting involved. For those who wish to read more into this, go to the general forum in ctfire-ems.com and read the thread.
On a side note, a similar situation is occurring in West Haven where there are three independant fire districts, each with its own budget, chief, and board of commissioners. For years there has been discussions on merging the three fire districts into one department, but to date, nothing has happened. Recently, the Allingtown Fire District could not pass a budget, so the the city took over its finances. They are now known as The City of West Haven Fire Department, Allingtown, however, the still maintain their own chief and board of commissioners.
Thanks for the information, fellas. I'll have to check out the threads on the other boards.
The more I read about districts and local governments throughout the US, the more it becomes interesting to me. We have very little of these jurisdictional and/or district problems (turf wars?) here in VA, so it's something to enjoy from the outside.
Taylor Goodman Captain - Henrico County (VA) Division of Fire Fire Chief - Huguenot VFD, Powhatan, VA
Roto, Those guys gave you the good Reader's Digest version and Medic is 110% correct about needing a few weeks to get completely caught up. Make no mistake about it, this has been a "civil war" that has cost friendships and created such deep seated resentment and hostilities besides going on the better part of 20 years that there's a whole generation of firefighters on both sides that only know these tensions and have no clue how it used to be when we all got along.
It's a shame and it's disgraceful because it took a system that functioned and through attrition was steadily headed towards a single career department but the then arrogant, bully of a mayor whose currently the incompetent, crooked governor spreading his ability to completely F' up everything he touches, statewide. There easily could have been a transition plan but it would have taken time and that imbecile creates friction and causes problems to get what he wants when he wants it and one of the very few combination systems in the country that worked well was brought to it's knees by this guy.
The mayor NEVER negotiated in good faith or personally and always kept the appearance of being at arm's length. Offers that would be made in the morning would be retracted by the afternoon, documents would be tampered with and just every aspect of trying to deal with the City of Stamford was dirty. That imbecile always had an issue with the overtime paid to the career guys, particularly Turn of River because it's the biggest with the most employees. Unfortunately for him their contract that was bargained with the city stipulated the overtime more or less mirroring the very same contract the city bargained with Stamford Fire & Rescue so what was his real bitch? When your minimum and maximum staffing are the same and you replace guys one for one you're going to have overtime whenever ANYBODY calls out. The city squeezed so bad playing games with budgeted money to the point Turn of River was unable to pay bills and because the career guys at that time were employees of the independent departments they were forced to defer vacations, overtime pay, uniform allowances, school etc. because the money just wasn't there and it got to the point of having to explain this to the electric company to keep the power on and since the fuel company wasn't happy and cut Turn of River off the machines were being fueled dangerously in the winter time with No. 2 heating oil. Machines weren't being maintained, ladder, pump and DOT inspections were deferred, EMS and Hazmat certifications lapsed, guys were operating in disintegrating turnout gear and on and on and on. Turn of River even had an off the record meeting with a lawyer about mortgaging the equity in the two stations. There were discussions of declaring bankruptcy to get out from underneath the union contract and the career guy's "Driver's Association" agreed to not fill the mechanic and fire marshal when they called in sick to help the dept. save money. It was that desperate. It would seem simple that since most of the personalities involved back then have moved on, retired, died etc. that common sense might prevail and why not just go back to the way it was and undo everything. I'm not an attorney so I can't answer specifics but because of court decisions that have been handed down from the lawsuits decided so far, they can't. It's a big jumbled mess that never had to happen in the first place and has sucked up 20 years of people's lives. It's been an atrocity.
Some of the biggest casualties in this are the career guys from Belltown, Glenbrook and Turn of River, some of who were forced against their will under threat of termination to be reassigned to Stamford Fire & Rescue. A lot of these guys had 30+ years on the job and now had a gun held to their heads. Since these guys didn't go through the civil service process and test for the jobs they weren't exactly welcomed with open arms and some SF&R guys still don't accept them and probably never will. One of the guys who voted "No" summed up his years (since 7/1/2008) downtown as "miserable".
What never made sense was the mayor's "problem" with overtime when part of the "solution" ended up being giving Glenbrook, Turn of River and Belltown additional career firefighters to allow those depts. to staff 2 man houses around the clock. Since the minimum/maximum didn't change and it was still one for one he only made the overtime situation worse by adding more faces. Those additional guys were allowed to hired by the depts themselves since the career guys were technically private employees at that time. Once they were hired all the career guys became city employees, NOT SF&R employees, just city employees but that's what made it easy for the mayor when he decided to reassign them to SF&R with the union's blessing.
If you're completely confused by now don't feel bad. This is just a little insight to a much bigger situation going on for 20 years. Who knows how or when this will get resolved. Right now a few court cases are going on, the city owes the career guys at Long Ridge a ton of money the court awarded them but the city says they don't have the funds, machines aren't getting out the door at Turn of River (less than 50% of time and I heard even less than that)or Springdale and Glenbrook but they have SF&R Engines 6 & 7 running out of their firehouses so they do get out. While Engines 8 & 9 in Turn of River are there they have to hope either Turn of River gets out the door with the tanker, ladder or rescue or they have to wait for those machines to come up from downtown or down from Long Ridge but taking them out of Long Ridge only compounds the problem because it's a large, difficult district to cover. Turn of River covers over 40% of the City of Stamford with some remote areas particularly on the western side that used to be covered by Station 2 difficult to reach just asking for a disaster.
It's a mess.
The way machines used to be bought if a dept. wasn't using it's own funds like Belltown used to do and still might was to make your "capital projects" budget request. It would go through the city boards and if approved you would be notified. Specs would then be sent out for bid usually to preferred builders. Our specs were so manufacturer specific that eventually Pierce said they would never bid on our stuff and waste their time anymore. Anyway, when the quotes came back there were decisions to make. If too expensive the options were to start removing unneeded stuff or dip into "non-city" funds, those being from donations and fund raising. After that, other than the machine being paid for with a city check the deal was completely between the dept. and the builder. When the machine would be delivered the Cerificate of Origin" would be in the dept's name. Not all vehicles ended up registered and titled. The ones that definately were registered were service vehicles and the first due engines and rescue since they went up on the Merritt Parkway and State Troopers tend to notice absent license plates but it wasn't unusual to see machines with no plates.
After the city entered into that long term contract with HME the old way ceased to exist. The city drew up specs for engines, tankers, ladders and rescues that would then be submitted to HME for current pricing. They were standard spec machines and if a dept. wanted anything extra like a "Q", gold leaf etc. there was the option to kick in the extra cash. So far 4 HME's have been delivered to the vol./comb. depts., 2 to Turn of River, 1 to Glenbrook and 1 to Long Ridge. To send a subtle message due to the ongoing hostilities, both Long Ridge and Turn of River have adopted a black over red "Chicago" paint scheme.
Turn of River's 2005 HME Engine 62 replaced a 1982 Mack MC that was the victim of a horribly botched 1990's Halpern Fire App. refurb. turning a good little, versatile machine into junk.
This is Long Ridge's 2007 HME pumper tanker Engine 73. That number hasn't been used in years so it's not replacing anything and is additional water so there's a pumper tanker in each of their 2 stations, the other being Engine 72, a 1982 Pierce I believe is 1500 gallons. The Pierce has a rotted tank and leaks like a sieve but there's no money to repair it. Those are in addition to their 2 first due 1000 gallon 1995 E One's that are in desperate need of replacement. They also have a 2007 Freightliner 4 Guys tanker purchased with grant money allowing them to not have an HME imposed on them.
**For those who wish to read more into this, go to the general forum in ctfire-ems.com and read the thread.**
this would be great except you have to be a member of the board and to become a member you have to be a member of a department that the admins can verify. hence, i can't be a member and can't read that thread.......or anything else for that matter.
at least here, i paid Mr Burke my dues and can read and post at will
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 (KJV)
Glenbrook's 2009 HME Engine 34. This machine was a pure "payoff" for playing nice with the former mayor allowing him to assign SF&R Engine 6 there. Not that they had any choice because they were already dying on the vine with very few active members responding to calls. Engine 6 was a lifeline for them allowing them to remain in "operation" a little longer. If I'm correct, I believe Engine 6 has even used this as their "reserve" causing Glenbrook to respond their 1992 Sutphen which is a step up. This HME replaced their 1983 Sutphen that was given to the city as a reserve engine.
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