PRESS RELEASE
Welcome Engine 29 to our community and mutual-aid departments!
Today Chief Emery, Capt Blair, Engineer Acre and Safety Officer Emery travelled to CT to pick up our new to us Midi-Engine 29. A purchase like this was previously not planned and we had actually been planning to replace our squad with a utility/brush unit in early 2024. However what we really needed was something more capable such as this apparatus. But the costs were extremely out of our budget range which included finding a reasonable used one that wasn’t overpriced or had been extensively used! But with some sheer luck by LT Spiegel running across this one, plans quickly changed in less than a short few weeks. With our 2010 Engine 29-2 being paid off from using an annual PA state grant, the plan was to utilize that same annual debt reduction on the utility truck. That pickup style unit would have actually cost us more than we were able to purchase this unit for. So not only did we get a major upgrade, we stayed under budget and did not have to use our hard earned fundraising or local fire tax funds to support it!
- Cantankerous Wisdom: The Midi-Pumper | Part 1
- Cantankerous Wisdom: The Midi-Pumper | Part 2
- Cantankerous Wisdom: The Midi-Pumper | Part 3
- Cantankerous Wisdom: The Midi-Pumper | Part 4
A little about what we got. It is a 2009 Rosenbauer Midi-pumper, 4×4 chassis with 300 gallon water, 25 gal foam tanks, 1000gpm Darley pump with a 3 line CAFS system, 5 person cab, LED emergency lighting and additional scene lighting. This truck packs a punch for all the bigger it is! To purchase one similar brand new today is well over $400,000!!! This meticulously maintained apparatus was purchased new by the Pleasant Valley VFD in CT and was not fitting their needs as first expected and they also needed a smaller towing vehicle for their boat. This is why they were parting with it.
Thank you to Chief James Shanley and Lt Chris Kulinski for all your help and making this a smooth purchase. Myself and those up there today feel you’re a great group of people and seem very similar to our close family-oriented department.
We will be posting many updates, outlook and goals of the department in the very near future. And we can’t express how much we appreciate our community for their support as well!
One last big thank you goes out to our Treasurer Bob Hackbarth for working out all the finances for the department. He went above and beyond getting us funding in ways we never thought possible. There is more time spent on his position than anyone can imagine. Thank you for everything!
President Blair
