Revitalized Fire Agency (San Bernardino Sun 062106) Rialto Unveils Engine

It is so nice that the City Council for Rialto has seen fit to spend all that money that they got from the Utility tax for the last five years and only upgrade the Fire Department. The Police department which they wanted to Throw Into the Garbage, and were forced to take back because the citizens that ultimately voted them into the jobs they now hold, forced the Issue, and said we want our own Police Department.

Which you cannot blame them, Stat's have all said that the City with their Own Police Department has lower Crime, and can concentrate themselves on bettering the community crime wise. Well in the battle that the City Council had with the Police Departments Union, and the Citizens of Rialto had forced some Officers to flee to other Departments Simply because the Rialto City Council was holding up raises and moneys for Improvements to the Department.

Money that they don't have now because they spent it all on the Fire Department. I estimate that the City Spent an Estimated $11 Million on new Fire Equipment. Three new Fire engines. A new Ladder Truck. And a new Air Tank Refill trailer to take and respond to calls and refill bottles used to enter buildings. The Ladder truck has a ladder taller then any building in Rialto. In fact when Interviewed the Fire Department said they wanted the extra Height on the ladder, Not for the City of Rialto but for Mutual Aid to other City's...They used the City of Colton's Arrowhead Medical Center as the building that they ultimately would be Poss. Responding to assist. on for Mutual Aid.

I hold my life to the RFD, however I am not blaming the RFD for anything Wrong. In Fact they didn't do anything Wrong. If you are given a $1000.00 would you not take that money? Then you would spend it, you would feel bad later when you found out that the money that was given to you was supposed to go towards the new doors at your friends house. It is not your fault that your friend would give you the money, it is his fault.

That is why I say this. The city of Rialto Purchasing Department, The City of Rialto's Administrator, and City Council is the people that should be held responsible. Not the RFD..RFD is doing a great job and always has. Now they have better means with which to do that job!! however the Police Department Suffers. They seem to have always shorted the Police Department. When they have needed the man power to back people up, the City cannot blame them for the job that they are doing with what they have from with which to do their job. As they have been shorted for years.

So much so that when Before my accident I was handling calls on my own without back's Directing traffic and handling the TC Scene is not all that easy. But we do what we can with what we have..

BSRanch...
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Revitalized fire agency Rialto unveils engine Robert Rogers, Staff Writer

RIALTO - By 2003, the Fire Department's aging fleet of engines was creaking beneath the weight of steadily increasing call volumes. Then voters narrowly approved a utility users tax, which was touted as a remedy for the city's underfunded public-safety agencies. Three years later, the Fire Department has come full circle. Fire officials on Tuesday unveiled a $425,000 Pierce Quantum fire engine to the City Council, a component in a retooling that has replaced the department's ancient fleet with four shiny new engines. "This is a great time for us," said Fire Chief Steve Wells. "I don't think any other city in the region was as close to the edge as we were in terms of old equipment. The difference is like day and night." The new engine joins three others in Rialto's fleet, one of which is capable of extending a mechanized ladder for rescues. The new engine is being outfitted with equipment and supplies and will be deployed for regular service July 1, Wells said. The department has been the beneficiary of more than $2 million in equipment purchases over the last three years. And there is more to come. Wells said Tuesday the department will soon begin bidding for another engine that will be outfitted for brush fires. It is projected to cost about $350,000. The engine unveiled Tuesday was built by Pierce Manufacturing Co. in Appleton, Wis. It can pump 1,500 gallons per minute, has a 500-gallon water tank and can spout fire-squelching foam. Councilman Ed Scott opposed the utility tax, which passed by less than 10 votes out of about 4,000 cast. It now represents about one-quarter of Rialto's budget. But Scott said he's pleased with what the Fire Department has done with the revenue. "The department is obviously in a lot better shape as a result of the utility tax, and I'm very happy about that," Scott said. "But I still don't like (the tax). It represents 25 percent of the budget, and we need to work hard to reduce it and replace it." The new engine's $424,527 price tag was covered by $169,309 from Community Development Block Grant funds and $255,218 from the General Fund, into which utility-tax money flows. Wells said the department owes its equipment resurgence mainly to the utility tax. "It's hard to even imagine where we'd be today, the extent of our equipment's disrepair, without the utility tax's passage," Wells said.