South Kitsap Fire and Rescue has wasted little time using the money allocated from the successful passage of a $4.9-million November bond issue to purchase new firefighting equipment.
Guy Dalrymple, SKFR deputy fire chief, said the department made a determined effort to expedite purchase of six new fire engines and five water-carrying tenders from Pierce Manufacturing of Appleton, Wisc. The expedited process wasn’t done solely to speed up delivery. Dalrymple said that by meeting the manufacturer’s deadline, SKFR realized $283,706 in savings.
“We saved about $100,000 alone by purchasing before the company’s 2016 price changes went into effect,” Dalrymple said. “The second savings came from making the pre-payment. On the five tendered, we saved $55,458 by paying the full amount upfront. We also saved $128,248 on the advance purchase of the six fire engines.”
Dalymple equated the savings to getting a new tender for free. He said Division Chief Jeff Faucett was diligent in his efforts to save the district money by keeping the development team working through the winter to complete the purchase agreement.
“Chief (Steve) Wright made some very specific promises to voters about what we were going to do with the money,” Dalyrmple said. “Most all of it goes to vehicle acquisition,” he said. “The bulk of it is for upgrading our fleet of fire engines.”
As Wright explained to voters last fall, South Kitsap’s fleet is well beyond its operating lifetime. The new fire engines and tenders will be allocated to SKFR’s career stations. The existing rolling stock will be moved to the less-used group of volunteer stations in the county.