Common Council Approves Purchase of New Ladder Truck For Cortland Fire

The City of Cortland Common Council has given the green light for the purchase of a new aerial ladder truck for the City of Cortland Fire Department. The purchase of a new ladder truck will replace the existing truck, built in 1995, which was delivered new to the Ithaca Fire Department prior to Cortland acquiring it in 2014.

City of Cortland Fire Chief Wayne Friedman told X101 News the current aerial ladder truck is a simple straight 100 foot ladder truck. The truck itself does not include a pump meaning when answering calls and the need to raise the ladder and supply water overhead to a structure, another truck must bring an external pump and hook it up to the ladder truck. This need also requires the truck to be strategically placed when at an emergency call, where time is critical.

The current ladder truck also has another issue and that is the availability of parts. Currently, the truck is certified for emergency use, but when a part is needed, it may take some time for it to be delivered and installed. The 1995 aerial body was built by Saulsbury with the ladder built by LTI, both are no longer in business.

The truck to replace the ‘95 aerial is currently being built by Premier Fire Apparatus, Inc. The truck was originally being built as a “demo-unit” which is a fire apparatus model that can be shown to fire departments. Cortland Fire Chief Friedman told X101 News the department was contacted by Premier regarding the availability of purchase of the demo-unit. A demo unit is an apparatus that is ordered and built with the equipment that is most commonly used by fire departments based on statistics and data collected. This ladder truck Chief Friedman says met a lot of the requirements the Cortland Fire Department has and were able to do some minor adjustments.

With the purchase of a demo-unit, the Cortland Fire Department will save a significant amount of time and money. The truck is expected to be delivered to the fire department by July 1st of this year with a cost of $1.79 million dollars, over a $200,000 savings than if the department would’ve ordered a truck. Ordering a new truck would also take up to three years until delivery.

The new aerial ladder truck will essentially be an up-to-date version of what Cortland Fire has, but will now feature a built-in pump. Upon delivery, this ladder will become the main ladder truck for the department. Cortland Fire’s other ladder truck, a 2011 with a bucket, will go into reserve and will eventually be replaced in 15 years.