Equipment purchase approved

Every fire department in the county will be getting new air packs.

Portland Board of Works on Wednesday decided to buy the new self-contained breathing apparatus through Donley of Indianapolis.

The purchase, which is being predominantly funded through a federal grant, will provide new equipment for all of the county’s six fire departments.

“Air packs are probably, behind the apparatus itself, our most important piece of equipment,” said Portland Fire Chief Mike Weitzel after the meeting. “It protects us when we go inside IDLH (immediately dangerous to life or health) conditions, smokey conditions. … We breathe the air out of the tanks. That saves us from having to breathe the smoke.”

The board had opened bids for the self-contained breathing apparatus at its Aug. 11 meeting. Those bids were updated ahead of Wednesday’s meeting to ensure apples-to-apples comparisons from the three interested firms.

Updated bids for the 98 self-contained breathing apparatus units and related equipment were $758,000 from Minnesota-based MacQueen Emergency, $762,974 from Hoosier Fire Equipment of Greenfield and $766,590 from Donley Safety of Indianapolis. (The equipment from MacQueen and Donley was from the same manufacturer while Hoosier Fire offered similar equipment from a different manufacturer.)

Board of Works member Steve McIntosh asked a series of questions about the new self-contained breathing apparatus, including regarding life of the tanks, specifics about equipment, how the tanks will be filled and Portland Fire Department’s previous experiences with the bidders.

Weitzel explained that the new air tanks are rated at 45 minutes, as compared to the fire department’s current tanks at 30 minutes. (The increase in capacity is achieved with greater air pressure — 4,500 pounds per square inch compared to the current 2,200 — to keep the weight of the tank the same.) Each tank will come with a backup cylinder.

The Portland department recently received a donation of a compressor to fill the tanks via surplus equipment from Fort Wayne Fire Department, Weitzel said. He estimated it saved the city $58,000.

(The City of Dunkirk recently purchased an air compressor as well.)

Weitzel added that Portland Fire Department has worked with all of the companies that bid and has had positive experiences.

With all of the bids within $10,000 of each other, McIntosh expressed his preference for Donley because he felt the firm presented a more detailed description of the equipment being offered. He made a motion to make the purchase from Donley, with fellow board members Mayor John Boggs and Jerry Leonhard also voting in favor.

Weitzel said after the meeting that the county’s six fire departments — Portland, Dunkirk, Redkey, Pennville, Bryant and Salamonia — came together because of their common need.

“Everybody needs air packs,” he said, explaining that Portland’s current equipment was at the end of its intended 15-year life. “So we were there. We needed to spend the money on it.

“Other departments are 23 and 28 years old. There’s a couple departments that are newer than ours. But in general, everybody needed them. And there’s always a better opportunity when you include a whole region when you go for a grant like that.”

The six departments hired Lexipol, a nationwide firm that specializes in public safety equipment, to write the grant application. The county’s departments were awarded an $815,545 Assistance to Firefighters Grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency in June. (The grant requires a 10% local match, which is being split between the departments based on the amount of air packs each will receive.)

“It’s great,” said Salamonia Fire Chief Scott Hilfiker, noting that his department’s current tanks are 20 years old. (New tanks cost about $7,500 each.) “That much money, it’s tough for a small department like ours.”

Redkey Fire Chief Randy Young said his department is still using self-contained breathing apparatus with steel bottles dating back from the 1980s and ’90s. They’re heavy and cumbersome. With his department’s equipment budget this year at less than $5,000, he said the county’s departments working together on such a purchase was essential.

Both he and Hilfiker mentioned the benefits of all of the county’s fire departments using the same equipment.

“It’s huge, for safety, for the town and the whole community,” said Young. “If I need help on one of my fires and they come here, they’ll all come here then they’ll know how to use them. … It works better for everybody with safety that way for everyone to have the same packs.”

Weitzel noted that the county’s departments will have the opportunity to request to use the excess funding — the total cost of the self-contained breathing apparatus came in about $50,000 under the grant total — on other equipment expenditures.

Also Wednesday, Portland clerk-treasurer Lori Phillips informed the board that each block of Meridian Street (U.S. 27) that is involved in the ongoing storm sewer project will need to be fully closed when work is being done in that area. Originally, the plan was to close only for work between the Salamonie River and Water Street, and then to maintain traffic with a partial street closure while working north to between Arch and Race streets. On Tuesday, crews shut down the block of Meridian Street between Water and Main streets as work began moving to the north.