Thursday, December 15, 2005

Using a Good Idea

It is interesting how a good idea, applied well, can end up profitable.  Earlier this year, the Commission and I attended the annual conference of the League of Kansas Municipalities.  While we were “networking,” Commissioner Joe Strecker met a lady he went to high school.  She was one of the vendors – actually helping her son with his company.

His company is called Purple Wave.  It is headquartered in Manhattan, KS. (The non Kansas readers should understand the school color of Kansas State University is Purple and KSU is in Manhattan.)  Purple Wave is a company that auctions equipment using an e-bay model.

Last month, new Fire Chief Larry Eubanks identified two vehicles that were surplus and needed to be disposed of.  They were an old rescue truck and an old Pumper truck.

During the League conference, Joe said to me “you need to check out that company.”  After returning to work, I saw the value of the contact.  When Eubanks told me of the condition of the two vehicles, remembering the contact spurred action.  I found the vendor brochure and had Eubanks call Purple Wave.  They put the vehicles on their web site and the bidding began.

Our expectation was that we would get some amount more money that we have in local bidding.  Earlier this summer, we were asked to find potential bidders for the old ambulance slated for trade in.  We ran several want-ads in major city markets and received no bids.  We ended up trading it in for $2,000.  Now that we know about Purple Wave, we can expect a better equipment disposal record.

Well, the best part is this.  The sales price for the rescue was $9,600.  The sale price for the old Pumper was $2,500.  The bids from Monday morning rose from $3,500 to $9,600 by the Tuesday at 10:00 am closing.  Needles to say, we are very happy with the result.

Getting back to writing again

It is time to get back into the swing of doing Blogs again.  It is tough to just sit down and write.  It gives me an appreciation for the editorial journalists that do this for a living.

I have a couple of items to write about today – both related to fire equipment.

Earlier this spring/summer we ordered a new ambulance.  It was delivered today!

It doesn’t look too much different than the one the Department is using now.  That is intentional.  Having the two ambulances outfitted nearly the same will help the EMT’s find things quickly since the two units are manufactured by the same vendor – MedTech.

As I said above, it arrived today.  Within minutes, firefighters and EMT’s started arriving to look the “new beauty over.”  It was interesting to watch the folks touch the various cabinets and doors, check out new head-sets, and test out the horn and siren.  There was a sense of watching sailors bring a ship to life.  There was a display of reverence as they considered the work they would be doing together.

The new ambulance is coming to life.  Thursday night, the Fire Department staff will be putting things in their place, loading cabinets with the various tools and supplies that will help keep someone alive.

This new ambulance is the product of a number of a number of people.  What is remarkable is the time it took the Fire Department staff to prepare bid specifications.  Our policy is to have the Commission review them prior to bid approval.  The Commission has a chance to ask “why this?” for the various specifications before they approve letting us go out for bids.  We then send the specifications to a number of vendors who prepare a cost estimate for us.

Before the Commission awarded bids, several vendors brought their demonstrators to Concordia.  Commissioners came and viewed the ambulance demonstrator vehicles and crawled all over them with the EMT’s to get their views of what was good and what was better.  In the end, this conversation between the EMT’s and the Commissioners produced a level of confidence ending in a purchase decision for the vehicle delivered today.  Each group – the EMT’s and the Commission - had the confidence the best vehicle was being purchased for the community.

The EMT’s had a say in what the City purchased.  That reverence I saw today reflected pride in their role in the purchase decision.  They actually OWN the new ambulance.