Last Monday, the 19th of December while members of the department were in the regularly scheduled Business Meeting. I reported that it was still unknown when the new Tower-9 were to be delivered. We had a good enough reason to blame it on, as a N2O sensor was causing an issue with a "Check Engine Light" but knowing full well that it was fixed and on its way down to Station 3 for delivery in time before our Christmas Party and Christmas itself. Randy Schwartz our local Pierce Dealer was on his way with his lovely wife Linda to drop off our newest addition to the fleet. It arrived just prior to the Business Meeting being over and when members came up from the meeting, many members were surprised to see the new Tower sitting in the garage bays. Many of the members got a chance to look at everything and even got to set up the Tower before heading back to Co. 9 where it will serve for many years to come. To say the least many members are very pleased with the outcome.

Since last week the department members have been working steadily on tool mounting which will go to our friend Doug Insley (from HVFD) on the 2nd. If you haven't seen his shop it is very impressive and the tool mounting work is second to none at First Due Apparatus Solutions. We have worked with him since his very first apparatus (Truck-3) in 2008 and have been very pleased with all of our apparatus since. Also, we have been working on training our operators/drivers on the intricacies of the new Tower-Ladder and yesterday we flow tested the waterway to ensure our supply pressures, waterflow and procedures are correct. We got about 1050gpm at 150psi which is excellent for this truck. As we get closer to putting the apparatus in service sometime in January-Early February we will continue to work and operate it, getting the little gremlins (not uncommon) to fire apparatus out and look forward to finishing this project. Stay tuned for the next story in a few weeks...