Officials, including Mayor Noble, foreground, look over the long new truck
KINGSTON – Officials from the Kingston Fire Department and mayor’s office were on hand late Monday afternoon at the Wiltwyck firehouse on Frog Alley, to welcome their newest, and most expensive, firetruck.
The $950,000 tiller truck, custom-built by Spartan / Smeal, carries an
aerial ladder over 100-feet long, capable of reaching tall buildings in
Kingston such as the Ulster County Office Building, and the soon -to-be
built HealthAlliance Hospital tower.
It was paid for with a municipal bond.
There are also tiller trucks in fire departments in Suffern, Haverstrawm
Hastings-on-Huson and two in Nyack.
Tiller trucks are so long, that a second driver is needed to steer from a cab on the back of the vehicle, in tandem with the primary operator driving from the front.
There weren’t any flashing lights, sirens, bells or whistles deployed as the new vehicle rounded the corner of Schwenk Drive for the first time, and silently pulled into the station.
Mayor Steven Noble explained that Wiltwyck was chosen as its home bay because it accommodates the truck’s length, and has good response time city-wide.
Fire Chief Mark Brown was delighted to finally see the tiller truck arrive.
“It was a five-year project that started in 2013. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of proving that we needed it, which we definitely do. I think it’s going to be a big asset to the city,” he said.
Brown added that the Spartan / Smeal model has a lot of new options which the older truck didn’t have, including the ability to maneuver the long ladder from the top tip, along with pipe controls on both ends.
The tiller will be put into regular service in mid-April, after the crews are trained in its use, and the rig is retrofitted with associated firefighting apparatus items.
The older pre-existing KFD ladder truck dates back to 1998, and is expected to be sold off. Mayor Noble said it now has a depreciated book value of only $25,000.
The Middletown City Fire Department was previously operated a tiller
truck, which it took out of service about two years ago. The vehicle,
which had been used for about 20 years, had become too costly to repair.
