Ho-Ho-Kus NJ Council Agrees With Concerns Over Aging Fleet

Ho-Ho-Kus NJ resident and Community Emergency Response Team member Stan Kober addressed Mayor Tom Randall and Council at the October 18 Work Session about his concerns with the emergency vehicles after recently experiencing maintenance issues with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) truck.

Kober told council members and the mayor that there simply aren't enough people to help with the vehicle maintenance at the Department of Public Works (DPW). "I was the recipient of a very unhappy incident or two relating to the maintenance of our CERT vehicle, I believe we have a serious problem at the DPW because we don't have enough people there. We absolutely need another back-up to Gary Tyler as a mechanic, no question about it in my mind," Kober said.

Kober believes two men need to be out in the field at all times operating the equipment, "when I see around town only one man operating the equipment, that's wrong."

He said this led to an incident several months ago when he had issues with the brakes and found that the CERT truck, a 2000 Ford F150, had two recall notices on it from the manufacturer. "One of them had to do with the cruise control catching on fire and the other had to do with the straps corroding and the tank dropping on the highway," Kober said.

He brought the truck to Jeff Pattman, Superintendent of Roads, Buildings, and Grounds who said the truck should be further looked at to make sure the vehicle was safe. "But he didn't have the time that week" and then (Hurricane) Irene postponed it, "meanwhile my brakes were going, I could feel my brakes pulsating when I was stepping on them. I heard some noise, which to me, sounded like the shocks may have come loose," Kober said.

The vehicle was eventually brought to a motor vehicle shop in Ridgewood NJ, where Kober was told the two straps were "corroded so badly on the sides that (the tanks) would have dropped any time."

Mayor Randall and the council members agreed that safety was a necessity. "We need to look at the age of the vehicles. We should be evaluating and looking at (the vehicles), just so we can triage where our priorities are and give you some kind of routine schedule before that. In terms of hiring, we're stretched at the DPW," Randall said.

Councilman Kevin Shea made the point that "sometimes taking a vehicle somewhere else to get serviced is a lot more cost-effective" than hiring someone else. "I wouldn't necessarily jump (to the conclusion) that we need to hire a new person," Randall said. "We may need to look at some outsourcing. It may be more economical to the town to accomplish both the safety concerns that you mentioned and get the type of maintenance needed."

Kober responded that the truck is fixed, nothing has to currently be checked out but he's bringing it up as a preventative measure. He added that up until this point, only the battery had to be changed and, "it (now) rides like a brand new truck."

"But as we speak, the emergency vehicle is safe?" Council President John Mongelli asked.

Kober responded that to his knowledge all the corrections were made but he still had concerns for the safety of all emergency vehicles.

NAFA Fleet Management Association
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