NCFPD approves lease purchase agreement for two engines

The North County Fire Protection District approved a lease purchase agreement for two new Type 1 fire engines the district will be acquiring.

A 5-0 NCFPD board vote last month approved the lease purchase agreement in which the fire district will make 60 quarterly payments of $33,494.99. The first payment will be due Aug. 1, 2019, and the final payment is due May 1, 2034.

“We’re at a point where we can get our fleet up to speed,” NCFPD fire chief Steve Abbott said.

The district currently has five active and two reserve structural fire engines.

“The last engine we bought was in 2012,” Abbott said.

In March 2016, the NCFPD board approved a capital equipment replacement program which covered anticipated purchases over a 15-year period; that vote also directed NCFPD staff to fund the capital equipment replacement schedule utilizing general fund revenue. The schedule sets the service life of wildland fire engines and staff vehicles at 15 years and designates the service life of structural fire engines as 15 years with an additional five years of service as a reserve vehicle. The plan called for $1,434,049 to be spent in fiscal year 2018-19 to cover $691,551 for a structural fire engine, $392,508 for a wildland fire engine and $350,000 for electrocardiograms. The plan also calls for the replacement of structural engines in 2021-2022, 2023-2024 and 2027-2028.

The structural engine to be replaced during 2018-2019 is a 2003 Pierce. However, one of the reserve engines is 30 years old and no longer meets current National Fire Protection Association standards, while the other reserve engine is 21 years old. The board agreed to place the 2006 engine in reserve and take delivery of that vehicle’s replacement two years early so that both reserve engines could be taken out of service.

“They’re long overdue to be replaced,” Abbott said. “We’ve almost doubled the life out of one.”

The replacement of the older engines not only allows the fire department to meet current standards but also provides a fleet of Pierce engines.

“These two engines will be identical,” Abbott said. “This will make every engine in our fleet a Pierce.”

That will have operations and maintenance benefits, and Pierce has a service center in Ontario. The North County Fire Protection District had previously approved Pierce as the sole source for fire engines, although the district uses the HGACBuy government procurement service and the engine purchases are competitively bid. The NCFPD board voted 5-0, April 24, to approve the purchase of two Type 1 fire engines from Pierce Manufacturing and authorize NCFPD staff to execute the purchase agreement.

South Coast Fire Equipment Inc., whose office is also in Ontario, will supply the new fire engines and expects to deliver the fire engines to the North County Fire Protection District in early 2019. Each engine will cost $731,328.56 including sales tax and fees, so the cost for the two engines is $1,462,657.12.

NCFPD staff negotiated a 15-year lease purchase agreement with Community Leasing Partners, which will own the fire engines until the final payment is made. An interest rate of 3.944 percent equates to total interest charges of $545,042.28 over the 15-year period which will bring the fire district’s total payments for the two engines to $2,009,699.40. The fire district will own the vehicles after the lease payments are completed.