To: Board of County Commissioners
Through: Tyler S. Brown, Sheriff
Prepared By:
prepared
Nathan Fogg, Director, Office of Emergency Management, Sheriff’s Office
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presenter
Presenter: Nathan Fogg, Director, Office of Emergency Management, Sheriff’s Office
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Subject:
title
Approval of Waiver for Hagglunds BV 206 SnoCat and Request to Sell the 2003 Pisten Bully SnoCat Fixed Asset 302546-3 to Bennett-Watkins Fire Rescue
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Purpose and Request:
recommended action
The Office of Emergency Management seeks the Board's approval for a waiver of purchasing policies as to purchase a Hagglunds BV 206 snow machine, and requests to sell the 2003 Pisten Bully SnoCat to Bennett-Watkins Fire Rescue (BWFR).
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Background and Discussion: In 2004, the Sheriff's Office (OEM) acquired the last piece of equipment (the semi-tractor) need to respond to severe winter weather events in and around Arapahoe County. Since that time the equipment has been used dozens of times to respond medical, law enforcement, and search and rescue calls for service. The two most recent storms, the Bomb Cyclone in 2019 and the March 2021 Blizzard resulted in the rescue and sheltering of over 700 people (of note in the last storm, winter operations were the only ones able to access and transport two stroke and one heart patient to definitive care). As we've seen and as noted in the County adopted Hazard Mitigation Plan, severe weather, across the seasons, has been increasing in frequency along with the population in our service area. After the last two winter storms, OEM conducted analyses called After Action Reviews and Improvement Plans (AAR/IP). After the Bomb Cyclone, two noted improvement items were improving maintenance and more frequent operator training. Based on those improvement items, OEM partnered with Littleton based Safety One, the leading snow machine training program in mountain west. The training includes classroom and field work with the machine. In our most recent training, the instructor would not certify our snowcat for training based on a bent wheel. Our operators trained on another agency's machine. Upon return to the county, a detailed maintenance inspection found the wheel was intact and functional, but all four axles were bent. The estimated cost of repair (all parts must come from Germany) was $10-15,000. Based on these lessons learned OEM began the process of investigating alternative machines. Our effort was guided by the mission of improving response times, increasing efficiency via capacity, adding value through multi-season usability, and finally to improve ease of maintenance. After weeks of site visits, capability assessments, and equipment evaluations, we determined the best path forward was not repair, rather a mixture of upsizing the rescue vehicle and right sizing the truck and trailer. Our data included the review of three different machines where we compared each against the mission stated above. In the end, OEM settled on the Hagglunds. Briefly, the Hagglunds increases rescue capacity from 8 to 16, increase operational speeds from 15mph to 40mph, adds four-season (snow, mud, amphibious) capability, uses a Ford motor, and is supported from a dealer in Casper, Wyoming who stocks all required parts and will provide on-site service when needed. Additionally, and of operational importance, the Hagglunds can be towed with a pickup truck instead a semi. This was the single piece of equipment that checked off each item in our mission. Lastly, Bennett-Watkins Fire Rescue (BWFR) has expressed interest in acquiring the current Pisten Bully. Roller Auctions estimates the machine would bring about $31,000 at auction. Subtracting the costs for repairing the axels, OEM recommends offering the Pisten Bulley to BWFR for $20,000 in an as-is condition. As BWFR regularly supports operations around winter search and rescue, the addition of the Pisten Bulley to their fleet would benefit the citizens of both Arapahoe and Adams County. Lastly, the severe injury accident in the March 2021 storm resulted in an AAR/IP item requiring the purchase of the new kinetic extraction ropes that lose their potential energy if a connection point fails, thus significantly reducing the likelihood of repeating that accident. OEM desires to use any cost saving from these upgrades to procure those ropes and shackles for both Road and Bridge and the Sheriff's Office.
Fiscal Impact: The Hagglunds as equipped is quoted at $124,101.50. All of these costs are covered by the IG Rents available from the purchases in the early 2000's.
Alternatives: As noted above, alternatives include repairing the current equipment and/or taking no action. Neither of these options, a $10-15,000 cost in the repair scenario, fulfill the requirements of our mission to increase capacity and effectiveness in winter search and rescue operations as statutory responsibility of the Sheriff's Office.
Alignment with Strategic Plan:
☒Be fiscally sustainable
☒Provide essential and mandated service
☒Be community focused
Staff Recommendation: The OEM with the support of Sheriff's Office Administration highly recommends approval and procurement of the Hagglunds, pickup truck, and trailer.
Concurrence: Tyler Brown, Sheriff; Mark Nicastle, Undersheriff; Glenn Thompson, Bureau Chief; Olga Fujaros, ACSO Finance Manager; Todd Weaver, Finance Director; Randy Campbell, Fleet Manager