Union Fire Co., Bensalem: Boy Toy Boat-all the Bells and Whistles

[Cya]

Did anyone catch this article today? This is the funniest story I've read in a long time. I was actually laughing out loud over my coffee this morning. When I was done laughing, I started to get angry. Angry that a tiny volunteer fire company in Bensalem could lie and mislead so blatently on a federal grant application, and our stupid goverment gave them the money to buy this 1 million dollar boat. No questions asked, it seems. Not then. Not now.
A big toy that no one in the fire dept. knows how to drive since they keep crashing it. But, they managed to go to a Celtic Festival, and dock outside Maggie's Cafe and go see the fireworks. Must be nice. Who's responding to calls while the boys are out playing?

The boat is on FEMA's radar," confirms Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Kevin McCormack, chief of contingency planning and force readiness on the Delaware. The likeliest scenario: FEMA seizes the boat, then searches for a federal, state, or local fire agency with the need and means to use her for the public good.
"But that's not something that would happen quickly," he cautions...

Why not? Where are our federal elected officials? Why aren't they screaming about this waste and slap in the face to taxpayers?

Fire volunteers' dream boat is a major drain

What's a tiny volunteer fire company in Bensalem doing with a $1 million taxpayer-funded fireboat tricked out to troll the Delaware River for blazes, bodies, terrorists, and IEDs?

Nothing, besides preening for festival crowds and crashing into objects seen and unseen.

With fewer than 30 active members - only a handful of whom even live in Bensalem - Union already "scratches," or fails to respond to, nearly a third of its emergency calls. When they make rare marine runs, it's usually to recover bodies. Until this year, the firefighters took off in a modest motorboat to guffaws at a nearby yacht club.

Although history suggests otherwise, the firefighters swear there's a genuine need on the upper Delaware for a superboat that can break through ice and pump 4,500 gallons a minute.

"The Bensalem police have an armored car," argues Dave Jerri Sr., a Union member and boat defender. "When's the last time they used it?"

The cops - who have no armored car, just a secondhand SWAT vehicle - scoff at the comparison. As Bensalem's public safety director, Fred Harran, puts it, "I didn't think the federal government would be stupid enough to give them a boat."

The beast has four remote-controlled "guns" able to fill a swimming pool in four minutes. She also shoots foam. A double-thick aluminum layer helps "Firestorm" motor through five inches of ice.

The boat came outfitted with an area to detain prisoners, a stable shooting platform and an infrared camera for night ops, even though Union members cannot fire weapons or make arrests.

And then there's side-scan sonar, a high-tech $37,000 accessory enabling the crew to scour the river floor for improvised explosive devices.

"IEDs?" cackles Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum. "Are you serious?"

[Dayman]

Yet, the Coast Guard Auxiliary has to scrounge to get boaters to join so we can use their boats, or use 30 year old hand-me-down Coast Guard utility boats which are falling apart.

We can't even get a new motor on it since it's too expensive. Yet these dopes get this boat!

We've run into marine branches of fire departments and police departments. They're all idiots who don't know how to use a radio, unseamanlike, and unprofessional. Philly FD excepting, they take good care of their boats.

Here's a protip: if anyone ever uses "over and out" or "roger wilco" on a radio, you know they're incompetent.

[tc08105]

As a retired fire chief I can only shake my head reading this. What an embarrassment. Not to mention a danger to the community. The municipality has lost all control of the fire companies serving in their jurisdiction.

Why doesn't the municipality have more control over the fire companies within their boundaries? A Bensalem Township Fire Department led by officers appointed by the department. The various companies would fall under the umbrella of the department, and as such, would be required to report to the department officers. Each company would have a captain and 2 lieutenants and elect department chiefs on a rotating basis subject to the approval of the department board and the township commissioners. Or the township can just hire a full time chief with assistants from each of the fire companies.

The department chiefs would report to a Fire Commissioner, an elected township commissioner appointed during the reorganization of the board every 2 years.

[Cya]

What gets me the most is that Union Fire Co. blatently lied on this grant application, and our goverment didn't bother to do any fact checking-and just gave them the $$.
Who is the grant writer for Union? Has he/she written any other grants containing fabrications and/or ommissions? Maybe that should be checked out too.
I am disappointed to read that the response from the OAG, FBI, etc. is so blase. And the silence from our elected federal officials is deafening.

No way should Union be able to keep this boat. They're a volunteer group. They don't know how to drive this big boat, and it's obviously unnecessary in that part of the area. They paid more to get all the bells and whistles--that they can't even use.
Regardless of how it shakes out with their membership, take the boat away and give it to another marine group with experience and dedication-- not just looking to do some joy riding and festival show-boating.

[JoeBaker]

Did anyone catch this article today?

Yes. It was an excellent article too. Almost made me want to resubscribe to the Inquirer. Almost.

As far as the story itself...I'd like to say I was shocked by wasteful government spending but I wasn't. More of the entitlement mentality that is pervasive in our country today.

[mixiboi]

That's post-9/11, they wanted to show that they can do something, be damn the paper work(Or laws)

Administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Department of Homeland Security, the Port Security Grant Program owes its existence to 9/11 and the ensuing national panic. Since 2002, the program has doled out more than $2.5 billion.

and a million dollar boat is one of those things that happens when you bypass paperwork...

[JBL]

We can't even get a new motor on it since it's too expensive. Yet these dopes get this boat!

I personally think we should get Dayman and his crew 14 of these badboys at ~560hp a piece.

Seven Marine Reveals 557-HP Outboard at Miami Boat Show | Boats.com Blog

[Cya]

Monica Yant Kinney: Philadelphia may try to snare Bensalem's 'Bear'

The beauty has suitors galore in Philadelphia, but she's at the moment grounded, bobbing the days away at a Tullytown marina.

Whether "the Bear" ever sniffs out a bomb depends on the same federal bureaucrats who gave her to the overwhelmed volunteers. If you're wondering how fast the feds will move to correct their $1 million mistake, try translating this statement I received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency:

"FEMA will work with Bensalem Township officials to gather more information, review and discuss options, and reach a resolution regarding the fireboat purchased by a FY08 Port Security Grant. At this time, no resolution has been reached. However, all decisions will be governed by applicable laws and regulations - particularly 44 USC §13.32 - which address the disposition of equipment purchased with federal grant funds."

Deputy Managing Director for Emergency Management Samantha Phillips has already made a move. She tells me, "I've had some conversations."

The boat's size, speed, and crime-fighting capabilities make it an ideal "mixed-use" asset. Unlike the beleaguered volunteers, Philadelphia's cross-trained police and firefighters are poised to prevent (and respond to) disasters from Delaware to Trenton.

"If it makes sense for the city and region," Phillips assures, "we can be the home for this boat."

But, I ask, isn't the Fire Department already in line to get a similar, but pricier, 40-footer from the same federal grant program? "If this becomes a reality," she says, "we can hold off that purchase."

FEMA needs to step it up and dump this boat. I don't understand their quoted comments, but it sounds like a bunch of political Bullsh*t.
The good news is that our Deputy Mgr Director for Emerg Management seems to be proactive in going after this boat for Philadelphia. She seems to have some sense about her and is sensitive to the fact that there might already be a similar boat purchase in the works for Phila- and would hold off on that purchase.

[Cya]

Monica Yant Kinney: The fire company is back, but boat still floundering

FEMA return policy
Foisting a $1 million boat back at the government to re-gift is nothing like returning a Christmas sweater your Grandma bought at Boscov's. It's unprecedented. And, surprisingly difficult.

Harran says Union's leaders are writing FEMA admitting what readers already surmised: that volunteer firefighters should leave the terror-hunting to the pros.

"FEMA is going to accept the fact that [Union] can't maintain this boat," he explains, "and find a home for it in this port area."

That's news to a FEMA spokesman, who bristled when I press for specifics on when the "Bear" will set sail and who will take the wheel.

"We have nothing else to say on the matter. It's truly a local issue."
Hours later, the spokesman e-mailed a statement that FEMA put its fact-finding results in a Sept. 4 letter and "the grant recipient's proposed corrective actions are due to FEMA within 45 days."

So, best I can tell, federal homeland security experts want volunteer firefighters to decide what to do with a $1 million boat they never should have had in the first place.
Priceless.

The firefighting vessel, meanwhile, remains moored in a Bucks County marina. Pray for quiet on the waterfront, since thanks to this government-imposed limbo, the "Bear" can't go anywhere.

Unbelievable! FEMA seems to have a no-return policy on a 1 million dollar boat that shouldn't have been gifted in the first place.

[mixiboi]

And why would they have a return policy?