toledoblade.com -- Rossford OCC to buy old fire truck, ambulance

A Rossford fire truck and a city ambulance made surplus by recent replacement purchases will be added to the training fleet at Owens Community College under an agreement approved last week by city council.

Rossford will receive $3,000 cash for the 1984 Pierce Arrow fire truck and 1992 Wheeled Coach ambulance to be sold to Owens for use at its Center for Emergency Preparedness, plus $10,000 in voucher credit for 100 hours of training at the facility.

The training time, to be used by Rossford public-safety employees, must be used by Oct. 31, 2014, and is not redeemable.

"These vehicles will certainly be put to a good use that may save lives down the road," councilman Larry W. Oberdorf, Sr., said before joining in the unanimous vote.

The fire truck, which has 26,913 miles on its odometer, is pump-test certified, while the ambulance has been driven 51,370 miles and is equipped to provide advanced-life-support training and Level One responder coverage.

The two vehicles "are going to be an intergral part of what we do here," said Mike Cornell, director of the Center for Emergency Preparedness.

The fire truck will be suitable for training in vehicle operations and life-fire exercises, he said, and the ambulance will be available not only for training but for any actual emergencies that might arise at the center, such as slip-and-fall injuries during training exercises.

The terms under which Owens obtained the vehicles from Rossford were generous, Mr. Cornell said.

"They were very, very good to us, and we appreciate what they've done," he said.

The two vehicles have been replaced in Rossford by a $423,387 KME rescue pumper that was recently placed in service and a $132,248 ambulance purchased two years ago. Funds for the purchases came from a one-mill fire levy that expires at the end of this year, said Ed Ciecka, the city administrator.

Also last week, city council approved adding $23,256.82 worth of paving to a $154,053.75 contract it had previously awarded to Geddis Inc. of Toledo, for work on Crossroads Parkway and in the Bruns Subdivision.

The city can afford the extra work, Mr. Ciecka said, because the current favorable bidding climate resulted in the price for already-approved work coming in under budget. The project will be expanded to include more paving on Crossroads, which since being built in the 1990s has been patched at several locations of underground utilities.

In particular, Mr. Ciecka said, the street has settled where underground sewers and drains were laid beneath it.

Construction was expected to begin this week.

Contact David Patch at:
dpatch@theblade.com
or 419-724-6094.

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