Patience a virtue when buying an ambulance

First responders often refer to the golden hour, meaning the faster someone in need of urgent medical care gets help, the better their chance of survival.

Constructing the vehicles that transport the professional medical staff to the patients is another story.

Fredonia Fire Chief Brian Weyker wants to replace the village’s only ambulance, a 2015 model. When he started researching prices, he was told building the vehicle would take 24 months. Within months, the timeframe jumped to 28 months, then 36.

“You cannot be waiting until the last minute to need one of these. You have to plan ahead with 36 months out there. Every once in a while they’ll have an off-the-shelf one — they’re gone within a day,” he said.

Weyker is seeking a vehicle with the same configuration of the current ambulance.

The Fredonia Village Board a couple of months ago granted the request to buy the new ambulance from American Response Vehicles based in Columbia, Mo., for $382,000. Weyker said the firetruck manufacturer Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton used to make ambulances through Medtec, both subsidiaries of Oshkosh Corp., but got out of the business years ago.

The village has been saving money and will be selling one of its fire engines to help pay for the ambulance. It doesn’t need the cash until delivery in 2029.

“Between now and 2029 we’ll have the cash on hand to pay that outright,” Village Administrator Christophe Jenkins said.

Village President Peter Lenz emphasized how the village is buying the vehicle.

“I think it’s also important to keep in mind that the vehicle will be paid for in cash. It’s not something that we’ll have to take a loan out for,” he said.

“Prices aren’t going to go down. It does seem reasonable to take action on this tonight.”

Trustees raised the idea of other municipalities helping to pay for the new ambulance since in addition to the village it will serve the towns of Belgium and Fredonia and the Village of Belgium through a paramedic agreement, but delayed discussion. Jenkins suggested talking about it at the Aug. 26 meeting of the joint group, but nobody brought it up.

The current ambulance has about 80,000 miles on it. By the time the new one is ready to replace it, Weyker said he expects it to have 120,000 miles.

“Now we’re starting to see the age in the box (patient compartment),” he said.

“It’s a much-needed thing right now. The only difficulty is we’ve got to wait for three years on it.”

The current ambulance, purchased in 2015, was involved in an accident in 2018. The driver and the driver of the car in the crash were both treated for minor injuries at a hospital and were released.

The chassis ended up being replaced with a 2018 model.

“It gave us another two or three more years on lifespan,” Weyker said.

He originally hoped the ambulance would last well more than a decade.

“When we designed this one in 2015, we spent a little extra money on it hoping to get 12 to 15 years,” Weyker said.

The ambulance will reach 14 years old in 2029 when the new one is scheduled to replace it.

Ambulances typically last about 10 years, Weyker said.

“After that, they’re tired out. The vehicle goes from zero to 60 mph from a cold start and just goes hard every single time,” he said. “This is a lifesaving piece of equipment. It’s not a work truck you can just park. We don’t have a spare.”

If the village waited to order the new ambulance, the cost was slated to increase $17,000.

The new vehicle will also be a gasoline engine instead of diesel, which saves on the weight load and costs.

“With all the emission requirements on diesel engines, that has become a headache,” Weyker said. “Everybody is going back to gas.”

The village plans to scrap the current ambulance for parts before selling it.