The Greenfield Police Department tries to replace seven to eight vehicles each year as miles pile up on its older cars. The replacement rotation for 2021 has been complicated by supply-chain issues: Vehicles purchased earlier this year are not yet on the road. The GPD hopes that improves with its 2022 replacement plan.
GREENFIELD — Greenfield’s public safety agencies will be able to put new equipment on the road in 2022, in one case replacing a vehicle that is nearly 30 years old.
The city council has approved spending Local Option Income Tax funds for the police department and fire territory to buy new vehicles and associated equipment. The police department will be able to spend $102,300 on new vehicles. The fire department was allocated a total of $775,000: $460,000 to spend on a tanker truck, $75,000 to spend on a battalion vehicle, and $240,000 for a traffic control system.
“I would say we’re a little bit behind on getting equipment replaced in the city,” Greenfield Fire Territory Chief Brian Lott said.
In addition to a tanker truck that is about 30 years old, the fire territory also has a fire engine that’s about 24 years old. Lott said there’s a high demand for vehicles like this — while they only take about eight weeks to build, a fire department can wait about a year to acquire one.
Lott said the department has been short enough on vehicles that it frequently borrows reserve engines from the Sugar Creek and Buck Creek Township fire departments.
“We’re trying to replace some old, aging equipment that’s costing a lot in repair money. It’s lived its life,” Lott said, adding that the equipment will also be more modern, with the new tanker truck, for example, having a higher capacity.
The new traffic control system the city also plans to add in 2022 will allow emergency vehicles to pass through traffic lights more quickly, sending lights a signal to turn green when a vehicle is approaching. The preemption devices will go in at all of Greenfield’s stop light intersections, 18 controlled by the Indiana Department of Transportation and two by the city itself. They are intended to aid emergency response times for the police and fire departments.
Greenfield Police Chief Brian Hartman said the department is usually on a rotation of purchasing and phasing out seven or eight police cars each year. The department decided to purchase four at the beginning of 2021, which they bought in April.
“The cars we purchased back in April, we don’t even have on the road yet,” Hartman said.
There has been a nationwide shortage of semiconductor chips and other issues in the supply chain that have led to problems in getting access to new police vehicles.
Supply chain issues have been a problem for the fire territory as well, Lott said. It got permission to order a new ladder truck in February of this year, but the purchase is behind schedule, and the city might not receive it until March 2022.
The fire territory has been trying to save money by extending the lifespan of its ambulances to seven years, Lott said. They now have four on hand, enough to have a spare while one is sent out to get refurbished.
Hartman said the police department has several 2014 Dodge Chargers in use with about 95,000 miles on them, the oldest vehicles it uses. He said those cars have higher-than-usual maintenance costs and have needed engine repairs.
The police department will spend the LOIT funds on purchasing 2021 Dodge Durangos, which are already ready to buy and waiting on the lot. Now that the purchase has been approved by the city council, Hartman said, the police department should be able to take possession of them in a matter of weeks.
Despite that boost to its fleet, Hartman said, the department will likely still have to purchase seven or eight new vehicles in 2022 in order to get back on track.
In September, Hancock County Sheriff Brad Burkhart spoke about experiencing a vehicle shortage because 15 cars he wanted to lease for the year, mostly 2021 Chevrolet Tahoes, had not arrived.
Late in October, Burkhart said, he received the cars from rental company Enterprise. He said the cars are slowly being rotated into the fleet for use by new sheriff’s deputies. He still hopes to purchase additional vehicles in 2022 to continue alleviating strain on the vehicle fleet.