Fire truck specs raise questions

By Kevin O’Brien

Questions were raised last week about the bid specs sent out to manufacturers interested in building a new pumper for the Central Fire and EMS District. As a result, plans to review bids next month have been put on hold.

At the district’s monthly board meeting on Dec. 21, board members grilled district chief Joe Mueller about specifications written by Pierce Pumper that were sent out to other competing companies looking to bid on a new truck.

Dennis Engel from the town of Mayville said the specs were written in a way that most bids would be rejected because they don’t meet exact requirements for something as minor as the type of paint.

“There are so many restrictions on there, nobody else can bid on it except Pierce,” he said. “Pierce wrote this, and that’s the problem.”

Mueller said the specs Engel was referring to were provided by a Pierce sales rep as a general guide for what to include in the final specs, but were not meant to be the official request for the bids.

“That wasn’t supposed to be sent to the builders,” he said.

Mitch Gumz from the town of Hull, however, said board members were led to believe that these specs were, in fact, sent out to prospective builders.

Mueller said a separate set of specs, totaling over 130 pages long, is what was supposed to be sent out to the companies.

“When we send out these specs to the builders, we obviously know that nobody builds a truck exactly the same,” he said.

Engel, however, said he’s felt “misled” by the firefighters throughout the truckbuying process, and he would like to see the board appoint someone to sit on the fire truck committee, which only consists of firefighters right now.

“They’re beginning to alienate us really bad because every time we turn around, it’s Pierce, Pierce, Pierce, and I don’t think they’re giving a fair shake to other companies,” he said.

In June, a proposal presented by firefi ghters to purchase a Pierce Pumper truck for $582,125 was rejected by board members who said their municipalities could not afford the extra money needed to buy the vehicle. Since then, the board has said it would like to see proposals from more than one manufacturer.

At the board’s November meeting, members voted to have the firefighters get bids from three or four manufacturers in time for the January meeting. If one of those bids was acceptable, the board could have approved ordering a truck for delivery later in 2021.

Board chairman Larry Oehmichen, who was not at last week’s meeting, said via telephone this week that reviewing the truck proposals will have to be delayed for at least another month due to the issue with the specs.

Oehmichen said he wants the manufacturers to have enough leeway in writing their bids so they can present their best possible offer to the district.

“I want to get the best truck at the best price for our taxpayers,” he said.

Other business

_ According to the monthly activity report, the district responded to 85 ambulance calls and four fire calls, for 89 total. As of the Dec. 21 meeting, the district had gone on 686 ambulance runs in 2020, and Mueller thought they would hit 700 by the end of the year.

Mueller said a handful of EMTs have done an “outstanding job” covering all the calls while others are prevented from responding because their regular jobs don’t want them exposed to COVID-19.

Local EMTs have also been covering calls for Spencer and Owen-Withee.

“A lot of us have been doing double or triple duty, but it’s been working out,” he said.

Unfortunately, Mueller said the shortage of volunteer EMTs is likely to get worse now that the state has increased the number of required training hours from 180 to 250 just to become an EMT. The refresher course has also been increased to over 40 hours, EMT Carol Staab noted.

Engel said he believes the state is doing this in order to eventually get rid of volunteer EMTs and replace them with paid services. Mueller agreed, and also noted that hospitals want EMTs to be able to do more for them.

Mueller said the training hour requirements also make it difficult for the district to transition from a basic to advanced EMS. He said the state basically makes you take the whole EMT course over again just to be able to start an IV and administer certain drugs.

_ Mueller said three people — Steve Wozniak, Trevor Robida and Kim Robida — recently finished their Firefighter I class and took their state test on Dec. 19

_ Mueller said firefighter Vince Bennett, who was severely injured in a car accident in Milwaukee, is out of the hospital but still has rehab work to do. Mueller said Bennett called and thanked the firefighters for their donations.

_ Mueller said Northcentral Technical College will hold its firefighting classes this spring at station 2 in Abbotsford, which means district members won’t have to travel all the way to Merrill for training like they have in the past.

_ The board’s next meeting was scheduled for Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. in Dorchester.