County purchasing new uniforms, equipment for fire department
Catoosa County recently invested in the future if its fire department by approving the purchase of new uniforms, as well as equipment to help in a variety of rescue scenarios.
Fire Chief Randy Camp addressed the county commissioners Tuesday night, March 21, and proposed purchasing uniforms for department employees rather than renting them, as has been the practice for the past few years.
“We went out to bid in January with two responders, and CINTAS was the low bidder at $34,627,” said Camp, who became fire chief in December. “That’s for 242 pants and 164 shirts, all made of the Nomex material firefighters are required to wear. It doesn’t burn and it doesn’t melt.”
Camp said that the money for the uniforms had already been allocated in the 2017 operating budget of the department and that the purchase would save the county money in the long run.
“We’ve been renting for eight, nine years, and over the last five years we’ve spent $115,000 renting uniforms,” Camp said. “Last year we spent $27,000 renting, so I think it’s in the best interest of the county to purchase the uniforms because they typically last three to five years depending on the user. I think overall, this will save us a lot of money over the course of several years.”
Commissioner Jim Cutler was in favor of the purchase, as was the entire board.
“We’re purchasing the uniforms for essentially $8,000 versus what we paid last year to rent them, so in essence, we’re saving about $15,000 to $20,000 per year,” Cutler said.
Camp also requested the funds to purchase Airshore rescue equipment to help in fire, wreck, and severe weather situations. Airshore is a collection of rescue equipment that includes, among other items, hydraulic lifts.
“We have a rare opportunity to purchase the Airshore equipment with the trailer at an extremely reduced cost,” Camp said. “We’ve been looking at potential growth and over the next 20 years, the county is supposed double in size. With that growth brings on new construction, traffic, and other things. This equipment will assist the Catoosa County Fire Department in heavy rescue such as trench rescue, large vehicle extrication such as tractor-trailers, structure collapse, and confined space work.”
Camp said he’d been negotiating with Hursh Jaws of Life on the used equipment.
“The cost of this equipment new is $75,000,” Camp said. “They were asking $26,000 for it, but it’s six years old. We’ve been dealing with them, and if we buy it expediently, they’ll sell it to us for $18,500.”
The commission unanimously approved the equipment purchase, and Camp says it’ll help out a lot in situations where buildings are potentially collapsing, or in a tractortrailer wrecks the department is called to regularly.