MUNSON TOWNSHIP — After much back and forth between trustees and fire department officials, trustees last week agreed to spend $247,000 for the purchase of a new COVID-19 compliant rescue squad vehicle.
Previously, the fire department’s request to order a new rescue squad vehicle during the Nov. 24 meeting was tabled with Trustee Jim McCaskey saying more information was needed to make a decision. He requested a meeting with fire department treasurer Rich Ferlin, who said he never heard back from Mr. McCaskey until Nov. 30.
“The tabling of Munson fire’s request to order a new squad during the Nov. 24 township meeting was not only surprising to us but another prime example of the lack of preparation on the part of the township board in offering another ‘last minute’ reason why not to make a decision on a critical subject,” Mr. Ferlin said.
Two of the fire department’s three squads have been experiencing mechanical issues related to unreliable power and the malfunctioning of the exhaust system.
Fire Chief Mike Vatty said it can take up to 78 minutes to decontaminate a rescue squad vehicle which complicates operations in a time when calls are on the rise due in part to COVID-19 cases.
Captain Brian Gray indicated that the department had plans to replace a tanker truck, but their priorities changed recently when one of the older rescue squad vehicles would only go 5 mph up a hill when it was dispatched for a call.
“People have to do their homework and if they’re not doing their homework, they do not understand the situation of the equipment over at the fire department,” said trustee Andrew Bushman. “I mean, when your backup squad is a 2012 and it’s recommended that you replace squads every three years, that doesn’t really make it.”
On Dec. 4, Mr. Ferlin met with Mr. McCaskey at the township to discuss his concerns on the potential uses of the current vehicle capital and investment account.
During the meeting Mr. McCaskey expressed his desire to pay cash for a new rescue squad vehicle using part of the $377,000 capital reserve that Mr. Ferlin was showing as available on his unofficial forecast that he was working on at the time.
Mr. McCaskey said he was adamantly against incurring additional debt while there was a cash reserve available.
Mr. Ferlin stated that purchasing a new squad using the $377,000 capital reserve was not a fiscally sound idea and believed that borrowing the money with interest rates being so low would be the better option.
Mr. McCaskey indicated that he was strongly in favor of purchasing a new squad using up to $250,000 out of the $377,000 reserve and authorize the fire department to use another $55,000 of the reserve to buy a new SCBA air machine to replace the used and aging 1980 machine that was purchased from the Euclid Fire Department.
Mr. Ferlin said it is unlikely that the department would support that spending that would leave only $72,000 in reserve for emergencies. “Our department has no other means of covering emergency expenses,” he said.
Mr. Ferlin said he discussed alternate funding scenarios with the trustee and emphasized that regardless of funding of the squad purchase and the SCBA Purchase, the ordering of a 4033 tanker replacement would most likely require taking another loan. But based on additional CARES Act funding, recovery of the COVID-19 impact and the additional 0.3 mill increase in levy revenue, the department might have enough capital to pay cash, he added.
During the Dec. 8 meeting, Trustee Andrew Bushman said funding for the new rescue squad vehicle would come from money that is paid for emergency calls as part of the township contract with the fire department.
According to Mr. Bushman, the township receives about 800 EMS calls per year and gets about $300 per call (roughly $220,000 per year) from medical insurance companies. Munson is on track to receive almost 1,100 calls by the end of 2020 due to the pandemic, he added.
“In our budget in practice, we have always budgeted that EMS money for equipment replacement, so that is where the money comes from,” Mr. Bushman said.
Mr. Bushman said the money has been there. Rescue squad vehicles are driven hard and have a large amount of life-saving equipment inside needed to safely transport patients, he said adding that technology in 2020 versus 2012 or 2009 is like night and day.
“If you are looking at it, it’s a vehicle replacement plan that needs to be stuck to and for whatever reason people didn’t want to stick to that plan,” said Mr. Bushman.
The meeting was held via zoom. The next trustees meeting is scheduled for Dec. 22 at 6:30 p.m.
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