HomeMy WebLinkAboutC2. BFD Surplus Grant
Commission Memorandum
REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor and City Commission FROM: Josh Waldo, Fire Chief
Chris Kukulski, City Manager
SUBJECT: Acceptance of Surplus Air Force Ambulance
MEETING DATE: January 11, 2016
AGENDA ITEM TYPE: Consent
RECOMMENDATION: Authorize Bozeman Fire Department to accept surplus United States
Air Force Ambulance with an estimated value of $30,000.
BACKGROUND: Per administrative policy 2014-01, I respectfully submit this as notification and request for approval to pursue the acquisition of 2006 Ford F-350 4x4
ambulance via surplus from the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The surplus
unit is equipped with a diesel engine with 3,495 miles and listed by the Air Force to be in
excellent condition. The cost of acquiring this piece of equipment should be less than $2,000.00 to pay for two BFD members to fly to Dayton and drive the unit back to Bozeman.
While there has been no mention of a need for an ambulance in the fire department
capital improvement plan to date, there has been on-going discussion with our local EMS
transport agency, AMR, about acquiring an additional medic unit. Presently BFD and AMR have a standing agreement for AMR to lease BFD with a fully furnished used AMR ambulance that is to be housed at a BFD fire station. This ambulance, known as medic 1, is dispatched to
emergencies in both Bozeman and Gallatin County during situations where AMR has no
available units to respond to calls for EMS transport. Upon receiving the request for a medic 1
response, two on duty BFD personnel move from a fire engine over to the ambulance, respond to the call and transport the patient to Bozeman Deaconess. Simultaneously when medic 1 is dispatched, a request is sent out for two off duty BFD members to return to the station to fill the
positions vacated on the fire truck by the members responding on the ambulance. Per the AMR
and BFD agreement, AMR covers the overtime cost of the off duty members who are called in,
any supplies used on the call, and any maintenance required on the ambulance. I have secured confirmation from AMR that they would support the stocking of the unit which will be an
investment on their end of approximately $30,000.00 and the continued support of covering the
positions that are called in for staffing. BFD would have to cover the maintenance cost
associated with this unit as it will be owned by BFD and not AMR, but I have ensured that we
have the necessary budget funds to do so.
Presently Medic 1 is housed at Fire Station 3 off of Vaquero Parkway. Since July 1, BFD
has received 107 request for Medic 1, which is an unusually high number of request, but a trend
that follows the overall increase in number of calls in Gallatin County. BFD and AMR have
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discussed the implementing of a second ambulance to be housed at Fire Station 1 on Rouse Ave,
but to date AMR has not been able to support the expense of providing BFD with a second
completed outfitted ambulance. By virtue of only having one ambulance, situations have arisen
where no one is at the station when the request for medic 1 is made. This requires that a fire company travel across town to retrieve the ambulance for response. This delays the response of
the EMS transport unit and effectively takes a fire company out of service.
The acquisition of this ambulance would improve our level of customer service by
placing ambulances on opposite ends of the city. The implementation of this second medic unit would not require us to respond both of the medic units at the same time, as current staffing
levels prohibit us from being able to do so. It would however reduce the likelihood of BFD
members having to drive across town to retrieve an ambulance for response. The acquired
ambulance would remain BFD property and thus would make it available for use at city
sponsored function such as Music on Main, Ice Climbing Events, Cat / Griz weekends, and other events where a potential for injury to the public exist. Having a BFD owned ambulance also
provides us with a safety net in the event that BFD was ever forced into EMS transport via the
withdrawal of services by our current transport provider.
While this would be a new piece of equipment added to our fleet it is not something that I would currently recommend we make plans for future replacement. Once this vehicle reaches
the end of its lifespan which I would estimate to be 10 years it would be up to our EMS transport
provider to replace the unit if they so desired. If the EMS transport provider declined to replace
the unit we would simply do away with it as it is currently not a fiscally responsible or beneficial
plan for BFD to purchase ambulances to provide back up support for the for profit transport agencies.
ALTERNATIVES: As suggested by the City Commission
FISCAL EFFECTS: Approval of this proposal will have no adverse impacts on the current Fire
Department budget. The cost associated with acquiring this unit have to do with the moving of
the unit from its current location in Dayton, Ohio to Bozeman which I estimated to be under
$2,000 for the cost of one-way airfare, lodging, and fuel.
Attachments: AMR / BFD Back-up Ambulance Services Agreement
Report compiled on: December 30, 2015
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