Brookfield village trustees voted 6-0 on July 10 to approve spending $250,000 to buy a new ambulance for the village’s fire department.
The village is buying the 2017 Ford Life Line Superliner ambulance through the Houston-Galveston Area Council, an intergovernmental agency that facilitates joint purchases.
According to Fire Chief Patrick Lenzi, it will be about four to six months before the ambulance will be delivered to the village. It’s the same model as the village’s Ford Life Line ambulance the village bought in 2013 and is deployed at the Broadway Avenue fire station.
The only difference, said Lenzi, is that the 2017 ambulance will come equipped with a power-loading stretcher. The 2013 model didn’t come with the power loader, which lifts the stretcher into the ambulance, avoiding potential injury to paramedics.
But the village obtained a grant to install the device in the 2013 ambulance after it was purchased. The power loader cost about $38,000, Lenzi said, and the cost was split three ways between the grant, the village of Brookfield and the village’s risk management service provider, IRMA.
The new ambulance will be deployed at the main fire station on Shields Avenue and will replace the 2006 ambulance there now. It’s unclear what will happen with the oldest ambulance once the village takes delivery of the new one.
It could be sold as surplus property or the village could retain it as a reserve ambulance. The fire department does not have a reserve ambulance at this time.
The village will take out a bank loan to pay for the ambulance, according to Brookfield Finance Director Doug Cooper, who said he expects to present the village board with a loan proposal in September or October.
“We don’t need the funding until the ambulance is completed and the village takes delivery,” Cooper said in an email.
