Replacing the RVCFD’s fleet

Rockville Centre Fire Department members applauded as the village board of trustees approved $2.5 million in bids for four new fire trucks at its Jan. 5 meeting.

The four new vehicles are an aerial truck, which has a ladder, and three pumper trucks, which have hoses and carry water to a fire. They are all replacing existing equipment.

The trucks will be paid for with two bonds totaling $2.6 million. One was issued in October 2013, and the other will be issued next month. The debt service will be covered by the general fund over 15 years. Three of the trucks, which are all about 20 years old, will be traded in to the companies building the new trucks, at a value of $59,000, to help defray the cost of the new vehicles. One of the old pumper trucks will be kept as a spare.

The lowest bids for the aerial truck and two of the pumper trucks were rejected because they did not meet the department’s specifications, so the next-lowest bids were approved. The aerial ladder truck bid, for the Eureka Hook and Ladder Company, came from Pierce Manufacturing Inc., and will cost $888,100. The older truck will be traded in for $20,000.

Defender Hose Company, Alert Engine Company and Reliance Hose Company will each receive pumper trucks from Hendrickson Fire Rescue Equipment Inc., doing business as Spartan Emergency Response Vehicles, for just over $1.6 million. Two older trucks will be traded in for $39,000.

“I’d like to thank all of our firefighters, especially our chiefs, and their truck committees who worked so hard over the last year — to year and a half — on bringing these trucks to us and to the board to approve them,” Mayor Francis X. Murray said after the bids were approved. “Our volunteer firefighters, as you know, are one of the most highly trained fire departments in New York state, and probably the largest in New York state. So we congratulate them and thank them for all the hard work they do for us every day.”

According to the board of trustees, the village saved more than $400,000 by accepting combination bids for the trucks instead of separate bids. The Fire Department will receive the aerial and one of the pumper trucks later this year, and the other two trucks in the following two years.