Police, Fire, EMS, Sanitation all getting new gear
By Rich Lord
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Copyright 2006 P.G. Publishing Co.
“Compress faster,” a computer voice told Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl as he attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Tuesday. The patient might have perished, if it had not been a dummy.
The machine doing the talking, though, was no dummy. It was a top-of-the-line portable defibrillator, the paddle of which was under the mayor’s clasped hands, monitoring his resuscitation effort and ready to shock a heart into action if needed. As a bonus, it measures blood-oxygen levels and takes blood pressure readings. (The mayor’s was a healthy 135 over 71.)
The city’s 53 new defibrillators, to be deployed in ambulances next month, are part of an investment in equipment, including vehicles and technology, intended to upgrade the operations of a government that had for years tried to get by on the cheap.
“This is a great example of how we’re investing in our city and in public safety,” the mayor said, standing by the new ambulance that carries the defibrillator.
This past summer, the city embarked on a $7 million, 86-vehicle upgrade to its fleet of 1,000 cars and trucks. The new models are starting to come in. That will be followed by another $7 million in vehicle buys next year.
Though the city is paying for some upgrades with money it borrowed early this year, it is covering others with state aid or federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security.
A $325,000 hazardous materials rescue truck that city crews first started up Tuesday, and the million dollars worth of equipment it will carry, come thanks to federal funds funneled through a 13-county security task force. Tasked with serving the entire region but based in Bloomfield, it replaces a 20-year-old model that lacked the upgrades needed to handle everything from chemical spills to bioterror.
The Fire Bureau is getting three decontamination trucks and a $1.1 million mobile command center, also purchased with Homeland Security grants and for use throughout the region. The command center will include top-of-the-line communications systems, video equipment and a conference center in a rig that’s a hybrid between a firetruck and a school bus.
“You don’t expect to use that much,” Fire Chief Mike Huss said. “But those types of things are what the Homeland Security dollars are intended for.”
Other equipment will get daily use.
Using city funds, the Emergency Medical Services Bureau just got three new ambulances and expects five more in coming months. The buys allow it to retire two ambulances that had clocked more than 160,000 miles each, and had become unreliable.
It also got two Chevrolet Suburbans equipped for rough-terrain rescues, two motorcycles for moving through dense crowds and a pair of van ambulances that can work special events like Steelers games. Most are equipped with computers that allow paramedics to file medical reports while transporting a patient.
The city spent just $1 million on vehicles in each of the last two years, and around $3 million a year in each of the three years prior to that. As a result, the fleet fell into decrepitude.
A private Cincinnati company, First Vehicle Services, was brought in to keep it running, but its repair work is costing the city $1.5 million more a year than expected.
Just how used up were some of the city’s wheels? In August, the city auctioned off 64 of its oldest vehicles, getting a grand total of $124,690 for 35 utility vehicles, 17 police cruisers, eight trash packers and four firetrucks.
Last year, when the city had no choice but to use those vehicles, it hurt service, said Public Works Director Guy Costa.
“In the middle of a snowstorm, we’d have breakdowns” in the fleet of 77 salt-spreading large dump trucks, he said.
Properly replacing vehicles was impossible during much of Mayor Tom Murphy’s administration, when money was tight and spurring construction was the top priority, he said.
“The money was being transferred to development projects,” Mr. Costa said.
As a result, the city has 23 dump trucks that are more than 16 years old, which is twice their normal useful life, he said. (It now has 24 brand new ones.) It has a dozen trash packers that are 18 to 20 years old, which is three times the industry standard for replacing them.
Mr. Costa is hoping to get rid of the oldest refuse trucks next year. He’s using state grants to buy new recycling trucks, three of which came in last week.
And with the city now on pace to finish the year with a $27 million surplus, borrowed capital in the bank and the emphasis shifted to providing basic services, he’s hoping to buy more. His 2007 wish list includes five more dump trucks, three refuse packers, eight pickups, a street sweeper and more.
The Police Bureau is planning to buy 29 marked cars and one unmarked vehicle in the next few months, and then get another 30 unmarked cars in the spring. The mayor’s proposed 2007 budget also includes money for putting more computers in police cars.
The Fire Bureau just ordered two ladder trucks, three pumpers and a multipurpose rig called a quint -- total price tag $2.7 million -- and it expects to make a similar buy next year. It’s still using some 22-year-old ladder trucks, but they’re now headed for retirement.
The new pumpers mix water with high-tech foam that soaks into surfaces, and have customized compartments for the medical equipment that is increasingly important to firefighters’ roles as medical responders.
A single ladder truck costs $575,000. But Chief Huss argues that the equipment investments are important.
“When we have a fire or an emergency,” he said, “our equipment has to work.”