Lebanon, Ore. – One Oregon fire district is easing the expense of refurbishing a fire engine with a special public-private partnership. And, they’re keeping it all in the family.
Lebanon Fire’s 2007 fire engines are reaching the end of their life. But when Battalion Chief Blaine Suing started pricing out replacement options, he realized costs had skyrocketed, “When we purchased these engines in 2008, I think the cost was around $350-400,000 per engine; now we’re looking at $1 million to $1.5 million to replace that engine.” So the department decided to fully refurbish one engine – still not a cheap project, but within their budget. “This is just a preventative maintenance that will get us further down the road. We’re hoping for another 15 years out of it, by doing this,” he says. Ordering a new engine can also take up to four years, while a refurbishment can be done in six to nine months. However, the work has to be done in Henderson, Nevada.
Blaine happened to mention the project to his dad Marty Suing, Director of Fabrication at Lebanaon-based ENTEK. Marty tells KXL, “I asked him, ‘how are you getting it down there?’” Blaine says, “We were going to have two people drive it down there.” Marty thought, “‘Gee whiz!’ and I said, ‘hey, sometimes we’ve got a truck going down to Henderson, there.” It turns out, ENTEK has a plant just a mile from Fire Trucks Unlimited, where the engine work will get done…