City OKs bid for fire equipment

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

A $105,000 bid appeared to be the highest of six bids for 20 self-contained breathing gear for the McCook City Fire Department, but ultimately includes all the equipment needed.

The McCook City Council Monday night at its regular meeting approved the bid from Weis Fire Equipment of Salina, Kan., one of six bids received for the equipment Other bids came in at $72, 978 from Heiman Fire equipment in Iowa, $75,421 form Ed M. Feld Equipment Co. of Iowa, $94,035 from Danko Emergency Equipment of Snyder, $99,918 from E. M. Feld Equipment, $104,000 from Fire Guard, Inc. of Omaha and $105,000 bid from M.E.S. of Fremont.

McCook City Councilman Lonnie Anderson questioned why the $105,000 bid from Weis was recommended for approval rather than the less expensive bids.

McCook City Fire Chief Marc Harpham explained that specifications for the equipment were written generically, so each company could bid on self-contained breathing apparatus at the per price cost of $5,250.

Each vendor has different patented features so to write a bid specifically for one would exclude the other, Harpham said.

Basically, all the bids contained the same equipment but the Weis bid contained other options that the fire department preferred, he said, such as in-house maintenance, training, tracking devices that allow firefighters to be tracked from outside and 20 additional 30-minute cylinders.

Ninety five percent of the costs of the equipment will be paid by with a federal firefighter's grant the city fire department received at $102,458, plus a 5 percent match from the city at $5,392.

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