An Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $30,000 to the Fire Department(#221) for projected motor vehicle repair through the end of the Fiscal Year.
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
B. (ID # 2026-1239): An Appropriation from Free Cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $30,000 to the Fire Department(#221) for projected motor vehicle repair through the end of the Fiscal Year. Motion to Recommend made by Councilor Williams Seconded by Councilor Finocchiaro All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Jason Chen, Cal Finocchiaro, Bradley Freeman, Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Elizabeth Kowal, John Obremski, Christopher Park, Devin Romanul, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams NAYS: None Chief White thanked the councilors for their support of the fire department. VIII. ADJOURNMENT Motion to Adjourn by unanimous consent made by Chair Roamul at 8:12 PM All were in favor and meeting was adjourned. He expressed his appreciation to all for all the diligence and hard work and great questions 8 throughout this budget season, and appreciated their patience with him, and, thank you to everybody. 9 CITY OF MELROSE City Clerk’s Department Tanji Cifuni
Transcript
▶ 2:02:58 Devin Romanul: Well, I mean, sorry, that's right. We have a transfer on the back end, but my apologies. Last FY26 item on our- Yes, yes ... agenda tonight, ID number 2026-1239, an appropriation from free cash in the amount of $30,000 to the fire department for projected motor vehicle repair through the end of this fiscal year.
▶ 2:03:19 Speaker 8: So here I am, asking for appropriation of $30,000 to keep
▶ 2:03:23 Speaker 11: our fleet maintained.
▶ 2:03:30 Speaker 8: This year, we have a fleet manager, sort of a mechanic, Lieutenant Mike Bell, who has been-- takes over
▶ 2:03:38 Speaker 11: the
▶ 2:03:40 Speaker 8: care of the vehicles. He's the one that keeps up with the maintenance schedules, arranges them to go out for service,
▶ 2:03:48 Speaker 11: and makes sure
▶ 2:03:51 Speaker 9: all our apparatus is
▶ 2:03:52 Speaker 8: to get its maintenance
▶ 2:03:56 Speaker 9: schedules are carried out. And then there are the
▶ 2:03:58 Speaker 8: repairs.
▶ 2:03:59 Speaker 11: And so,
▶ 2:04:03 Speaker 8: as we try to go do it with our aging fleet, trying to get into this, our two newest trucks, our Ladder 1 and our Engine 2, are 2022 and 2023. But then our Engine 3 that's in service, the front line piece is a 2010, and our backup ladder is a 2007, and our backup engine, Engine 4, is a
▶ 2:04:29 Speaker 8: 2007. And so trying to keep our aging fleet going, we need another 30,000 for the expenses that he needs to do to get through this year to pay for the
▶ 2:04:40 Speaker 9: maintenance of these trucks and the repair of them.
▶ 2:04:44 Speaker 9: Let me see. We have a couple of things.
▶ 2:04:50 Speaker 8: I'm sorry. That's all I can think. Getting back to, like we discussed earlier, about ordering new trucks and buying them. Right now, buying new trucks is a 40-month
▶ 2:04:59 Speaker 9: wait from the day you order till you get it.
▶ 2:05:04 Speaker 8: And so, the capital improvement we put in for two pumps, it didn't get approved for this year.
▶ 2:05:11 Speaker 8: And so we're looking at possibly refurbishing our Engine 3. We had a Seagrave representative come down and evaluate it. It appears to be a good candidate for that. And so what that'll do, it saves expense of buying a new truck, and the
▶ 2:05:25 Speaker 9: timeframe from that is roughly 24 months. So that's a possibility for one of us to
▶ 2:05:33 Speaker 8: not replace one of our vehicles, but put it back into
▶ 2:05:39 Speaker 9: really good condition to give us more service years.
▶ 2:05:42 Speaker 10: Basically, for
▶ 2:05:46 Speaker 8: this past year, the maintenance cost to keep Engine 3 in service was $13,251. To keep Engine 4, the backup, in service, $11,685. So every time Engine 2 or Engine 3 goes out for service, we put Engine 4 in service. So Engine 4 still sees quite a bit of service, and the same goes for Ladder 2. When Ladder 1 goes out for service or repair, Ladder 2 goes into service. So we have to maintain these vehicles because the length of time to purchase, the expense of it, to get that under capital improvement takes a lot of planning. But we have to account for now they have this-- It used to be just
▶ 2:06:28 Speaker 9: about a year was normally what it took to get a vehicle.
▶ 2:06:31 Speaker 8: Now it's rushing up between three and a half years,
▶ 2:06:35 Speaker 9: and there's no change in sight.
▶ 2:06:39 Speaker 8: So that's why we're asking these 30,000 to maintain the
▶ 2:06:43 Speaker 9: vehicles we have to get us through this year,
▶ 2:06:46 Speaker 9: and try and continue on keeping our apparatus in service, because we have to keep not only
▶ 2:06:53 Speaker 8: ours, but the backup trucks still in service because they do go in service,
▶ 2:06:55 Speaker 9: to properly maintain the current
▶ 2:06:58 Speaker 11: frontline pieces.
▶ 2:07:01 Devin Romanul: Terrific. Up first, I have Councilor Williams.
▶ 2:07:04 Speaker 4: I would like to make a motion to approve.
▶ 2:07:05 Devin Romanul: Second. Motion to approve made by Councilor Williams, second by Councilor Finocchiaro. On discussion.
▶ 2:07:12 Speaker 1: Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?
▶ 2:07:14 Speaker 2: Vice Chair Vandiver? Yes. Councilor Chen? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine? Yes. Councilor Karamcheti? Yes. Councilor Kowal? Yes. Councilor Obremski? Yes. Councilor Park? Yes. Councilor Williams? Yes. President Freeman? Yes. Chair Romanul?
▶ 2:07:29 Devin Romanul: Yes. All in favor. All in favor, we'll move that forward to the full council. Thank you so much, Chief.
▶ 2:07:33 Speaker 8: Thank you. I want to thank the council for the continued support of the fire department. We really appreciate it. Thank you.