Central Fire puts SCBA purchases on hold

By Kevin O’Brien

Larry Oehmichen, chairman of the Central Fire and EMS board, made it clear last Thursday that he was not happy with how the previous month’s meeting had turned out – accusing “an unruly bunch of firemen” of showing up “to intimidate and bully the board into purchasing new air packs” without getting more than one price quote.

Oehmichen sharply questioned the firefighters who recommended the purchase of 32 air packs and 60 facemasks from MSA Safety, for a total cost of $278,589, to be used for the self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs) worn during fires.

“Why didn’t you guys do your due diligence and come to us with some numbers instead of the fiasco that it was last month – trying to run this right down our throats?” he said.

After the board voted 4-3 on Feb. 27 to advance the MSA proposal to the seven municipalities in the district, Oehmichen said he checked with two other competing vendors and found less expensive options for the district to consider. In response, the board voted unanimously last Thursday to postpone the purchase until May so they could see a demonstration from one of the competing vendors, Drager.

Firefighter Kurt Robida, who chairs the committee in charge of researching purchases, said they only looked at MSA’s pricing for air packs because the district already owns bottles from MSA and they didn’t want to have to buy new bottles from a different company.

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“That’s the only reason we went that route,” he said.

Oehmichen, however, pointed out at that Drager sells an adapter for $119 that would allow MSA bottles to be used with Drager’s packs. Robida acknowledged that he did not know that ahead of time, and Oehmichen said that’s part of the problem.

“You guys flew off half-cocked on a mission to get this done without checking a lot of this stuff out,” he said. “That’s inexcusable.”

Oehmichen went beyond chastizing firefighters for failing to get more than one price quote; he also accused officials from the town of Hull of violating the state’s open meetings law by allegedly forming a walking quorum before the February meeting in order to make sure the MSA purchases were approved.

Without providing any direct evidence, Oehmichen said he became suspicious after town supervisor Leonard Haas attended the February meeting when he had only come to one other district meeting over the past two years. Oehmichen questioned how Haas knew that he needed to come to the meeting and make a motion to purchase the SCBAs, and implied that he and Robida, who is also on Hull’s town board, had arranged it ahead of time.

Oehmichen said he contacted the town of Hull chairman, Jordan Reynolds, who told him that the SCBA issue had not been on the town board’s agenda and he didn’t know anything about it.

“This led me to believe that the two supervisors had an illegal meeting, with supervisor Haas instructed to attend the meeting, make the motion to purchase and vote for the SCBA gear,” he claimed.

Reynolds and Robida both disputed Oehmichen’s claims, saying that Haas had only been asked to attend February’s meeting so that the township had a voting representative in attendance.

“So, at our (town) meeting, I told Jordan that Leonard needs to go because there’s been no representation from the town of Hull for the past three months,” Robida said. “That’s all I said.”

Still, Oehmichen said he would not go along with the board’s action from the previous month, claiming that Hull’s vote should not be counted, which would leave the motion at a 3-3 tie.

“If it’s the decision of this board to do nothing and accept this vote, I will have no part of this illegal action and will file a complaint with the Marathon County sheriff,” he said, noting that it would be up to the district attorney to decide if an open meetings violation had occurred.

After the Feb. 27 meeting, per the district’s bylaws, the proposal to purchase the SCBAs from MSA went to each of the boards and councils that make up the district’s seven municipalities. The city councils in Abbotsford and Colby both voted to approve the purchases, as did Dorchester’s village board and the town boards in Hull and Holton, which means the proposal met the 66.6 percent threshold needed to authorize any district purchase over $100,000.

(The 66.6 percent threshold is based on the amount of equalized property value in each municipality as a share of the whole district).

Oehmichen said he believes the board can go ahead and choose another vendor without having to get permission from the municipalities again, as long as the price does not go above the $278,589 total approved at the March meetings.

City of Colby representative Todd Schmidt agreed that another vote of the municipalities was not necessarily needed.

“I’d think they would happy if it was a good deal with good equipment,” he said.

Price comparisons

MSA’s quote for 32 airpacks was $278,589, but that price does not include tanks, which would need to purchased at an estimated cost of $200,000 by 2034, bringing the total cost outlay to $478,589, Oehmichen noted.

By comparison, he said Scott-brand SCBAs would cost a total of $311,840, which includes $200,800 for 32 airpacks, plus $101,056 for 64 tanks and $9,984 for facemasks.

The lowest price, according to Oehmichen, came from Drager, which offered 32 sets of airpacks and facemasks, plus 64 tanks, for $244,288. The cost is based on the company’s current buy one, get one offer on tanks, which expires on May 15, he noted.

Based on his conversation with the company’s sales rep, Oehmichen said the fire departments in Edgar, Athens, Marathon, Greenwood and Loyal have all bought Drager SCBAS within the last five years.

Town of Mayville representative Rick Rinehart wondered why the firefighters didn’t at least look into buying used SCBAs, noting that Chippewa Falls recently purchased 54 sets and is happy with them. When district chief Joe Mueller asked Rinehart why he voted in favor of buying new SCBAs from MSA, Rinehart said he initially wanted the municipalities to have a chance to vote, but he had second thoughts.

“The more and more I dug into it after that, Joe, the more and more I got upset with us,” he said. “There’s no reason we didn’t look into used stuff.”

Mueller said he was not opposed to looking at other options besides MSA, and acknowledged that firefighters may have had “tunnel vision” when they were looking for packs that fit the bottles they have. However, he also said local firefighters have preferred to use MSA’s SCBAs in the past, believing them to be higher quality and a better bargain.

When asked why the SCBA purchases were not included in the 2025 budget, Mueller said $50,000 is already put away for capital expenditures and he didn’t think the board would agree to adding more money for equipment.

“That’s why I didn’t ask for any more,” he said. “Your budget is high enough the way it is.”

Going forward, Oehmichen said he would like to avoid spur-of-the-moment purchases and require at least two quotes and threemonths notice for purchases over $25,000, and three quotes and four-month notice for purchases over $100,000.

Mueller said he was not opposed to that plan, and took responsibility for not getting more quotes for the SCBAs before presenting a proposal to the board.

“That’s on me,” he said. “I’ll take the blame for it.”

City of Abbotsford representative Jim Weix questioned if going for the cheapest price is always the best option when the safety of firefighters is on the line.

“Usually when you pay a little more for it, you get a better quality product,” he said. “I’m not saying we need to buy the more expensive stuff. I’m open to any suggestions, but I’m thinking we need to explore all aspects of this.”

Oehmichen noted that Drager’s SCBAs are the mostly widely used in the world, and they’ve proven to be good enough for several surrounding fire departments.

“I think that we owe it our taxpayers to take a look at some of this other equipment if there’s that much of a savings out there,” he said.

Given the fact that firefighters are currently using older equipment that sometimes fails to work, Weix said he did not want to put off the decision too much longer.

“I just don’t want somebody to end up dead because we didn’t want to spend the money,” he said. “That would just not be right.”

A demonstration of Drager SCBAs has been scheduled for 7 p.m. on April 16 at the Abbotsford Fire Hall.

Other business

■ Board members reported that all seven municipalities signed off on the purchase of a Braun 2026 Ford F550 ambulance for $309,744, with delivery expected in 2027.

■ In a related matter, the board voted to designate the district’s certificate of deposit, with a balance of $327,840, as the account that will be used to pay for the new ambulance.