TITLE: Title
Use of South Orange Fire District Fund Balance
PURPOSE: The purpose of this agenda item is to seek Town Council approval for the Town Manager to request use of the South Orange Fire District Fund Balance to purchase a Tanker Truck for the Fire-Rescue Department.
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DEPARTMENT: Fire-Rescue Department
CONTACT INFORMATION: David Schmidt, Fire Chief, 919-918-7349, dschmidt@townofcarrboro.org
INFORMATION: Orange County contracts with Carrboro Fire-Rescue to provide fire, rescue, and EMS services to the South Orange Fire District (SOFD). In addition to the fire tax revenue paid from the SOFD to the Town of Carrboro, each year fund balance accumulates when a district exceeds anticipated County revenues.
The district may use accumulated fund balance for several reasons - purchase of vehicles, equipment, or to avoid increasing the district’s property tax rate.
Fund balance is calculated each year on June 30. As of June 20, 2020, the available fund balance for the SOFD was $175,675.
Carrboro Fire-Rescue Department has identified a need to provide an increased amount of water for structure fires in the South Orange Fire District. Currently, Carrboro relies on neighboring fire departments to provide the majority of the water needed to establish the initial water supply to extinguish a fire. This is accomplished through the use of tanker trucks. Tanker trucks are slightly smaller, more maneuverable than a fire engine, and designed to shuttle water to the fire scene. In Orange County, a tanker truck holds 2,000 gallons of water, 50 percent more than a fire engine. This maneuverability becomes critically important when the tankers need to refill and return to the scene as quickly as possible.
This purchase will make Carrboro Fire-Rescue more efficient because the initial response will not only be less reliant on neighboring fire departments, but there will be 1,000 gallons of additional water responding to the scene from CFR apparatus. This will also be beneficial when a neighboring fire department is unavailable to respond and a tanker truck is requested from a further distance. The time delay may be less critical than it currently is.
The amount requested to utilize for the vehicle purchase is $125,000.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: Fiscal impacts - this purchase is a shared cost between Orange County and Carrboro. The total cost of the purchase will be an amount not to exceed $350,000. The County’s portion will be $125,000 and the Town of Carrboro’s portion will be $225,000. The amount of Carrboro’s portion has been reduced from the original amount of $300,000.
This purchase will be made either utilizing piggyback pricing or through the Houston Galveston Area Council, a nationwide government procurement service. Either of these options help assure the most cost-efficient purchase price.
Staff impacts - efficiencies in service delivery in having a vehicle better suited to the needs of the Town and SOFD. This does provide additional versatility in Town, in the event that static water supply is interrupted.
RECOMMENDATION:r Staff recommends the Town Council approve the request authorizing the Town Manager to make the request, not to exceed $125,000, to Orange County for the use of the fund balance which will be combined with Town of Carrboro funding to purchase a tanker truck.