Anchorage Assembly to consider $1.2 million for two fire tenders replacing aging trucks

The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled Tuesday, Oct. 20, to consider buying two Rosenbauer tender engines for the Anchorage Fire Department for no more than $1,226,664, or $613,332 each. The request sits on the Assembly's consent agenda, which holds routine items such as bid awards that do not require a public hearing.

The new tenders would replace Tenders 8 and 9 at Stations 8 and 9, both more than 25 years old. A department memo says the National Fire Protection Association recommends a 25-year service limit for tenders for safety. Each new truck would carry a 2,000-gallon water tank and a 750-gallon-per-minute pump on a Freightliner chassis.

Anchorage Fire Service Area Bonds would pay for the purchase, according to the Assembly memorandum. Fire Chief Doug Schrage recommended the purchase, and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance submitted it.

The city would buy through Sourcewell, a national purchasing cooperative that competitively awards vendor contracts and extends that pricing to member governments. Its price runs 15% below the $721,567 list price per truck, saving about $216,000 on the pair. Rosenbauer also offers $76,000 off if the city prepays in full within 30 days of the order. The department memo says that discount would cover probable change orders during the build.

The price includes three days of training and two build inspection trips for three department staff. Rosenbauer would deliver the trucks to the Port of Alaska within 600 days of the order, or roughly 20 months.

The department plans to evaluate the old tenders for reserve duty, with any displaced reserve trucks sold through the municipal surplus process.

In July, the Assembly considered a Rosenbauer pumper engine bought through the same Sourcewell contract. That truck cost about $1.4 million and carried a 900-day delivery estimate. In 2023, Anchorage approved a Sourcewell purchase of two Rosenbauer ladder trucks, with delivery then set at 455 days after the order.