BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer
UPPER FREEHOLD — The Township Committee unanimously approved the purchase of a $195,000 stainless-steel elliptical tanker to be used by the Hope Fire Company, although a former mayor had serious questions about the acquisition.
At the Dec. 16 meeting, former Mayor Robert Abrams wanted to know why the township was considering such an appropriation, claiming that a stainless-steel tanker could be found on the secondary market for about $6,000. The tanker currently used by the Hope Fire Company dates from 1957.
“We have to be practical,” Abrams said. “The purpose is to bring water to an area without hydrants or [with] no access to creeks.”
Aside from K. Hovnanian’s Four Seasons and Heritage Green developments, the township is serviced by wells.
Deputy Mayor David Horsnall, himself a longtime volunteer firefighter, said a lot of research went into the writing of the specifications for the tanker. It took nearly two years’ worth of efforts by a number of people, he said, and involved writing a grant application for funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which agreed to pay $45,000 toward the purchase.
Horsnall acknowledged that when Abrams was in office, he asked important questions every time a fire budget was put together. Horsnall also said the manpower that went into repairing the current tanker was no longer available.
“We don’t have those kinds of man-hours and [that kind of] donation time anymore,” he stated. “Every hour spent by volunteers in the station is spent on training and fighting fires.”
A late member of the fire squad who was a welder would donate repairs to the tanker, Horsnall recalled.
“[But] we don’t have that kind of situation in town anymore,” he said. “The need is there to move water in an efficient manner.”
Horsnall called the current tanker a “sieve,” saying that because the new tanker is stainless steel, it should last a long time.
According to Horsnall, from 1968-72 the Hope Fire Company purchased two different Class A fire truck pumpers, which cost $40,000 apiece. A pumper bought recently by the fire company, he said, was in the $350,000-$400,000 range.
“They are Class A pumpers to respond to the rural environment we live in,” he said. “If we don’t put mains in the ground, that [need] will not change.”
Horsnall added that he does not want the township to have a city water system.
“These are the kinds of costs we are looking at to manage growth and provide emergency services,” he said. “You have to appreciate the fact that the manpower isn’t there.”
Mayor John Mele said the township had budgeted reserves for this kind of equipment.
“The need will get greater as time progresses,” said Mele.
Horsnall said the tanker had twice gone out to bid. The first time, there was only one interested party, so additional modifications were made to the specifications in order to encourage other bidders. Still, only one bid on the tanker was received.
“I’d hoped we could have had a more competitive bidding system,” he said.
Committeeman Stephen Alexander said the fire company was doing a phenomenal job with a resource that is a “dinosaur.”