Airport picks emergency firm

Fort Smith officials to negotiate rescue, firefighting pact

FORT SMITH -- The Fort Smith Regional Airport Commission on Tuesday chose a Green Bay, Wis., company to provide aircraft rescue and firefighting service beginning next month.

The commissioners, in a special meeting, voted to begin negotiating with Pro-Tec Fire Services for a contract they hope to vote on at their regular Aug. 26 meeting.

Airport Director John Parker estimated the cost of the firefighting service could range from $200,000 a year for a minimum level of service to $400,000 a year for the maximum service. The cost will depend on what service level is agreed on in the negotiations.

Pro-Tec was one of two companies that submitted proposals on qualifications to provide fire-protection service at the airport. The other proposal came from Rural/Metro Fire of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Parker said the proposals were independently evaluated by two airport staff members and commission Chairman Mac McGhee. Points were awarded for answers to various questions in the requests for proposals, and they were tallied to determine the best proposal.

"All the evaluations placed Pro-Tec as our preferred provider of these particular services," Parker said.

The airport and Pro-Tec will negotiate the variables of the contract in the coming weeks, he said. Such variables would include whether the company will provide only personnel, personnel and equipment, or personnel, equipment and spare equipment.

"It's almost a cafeteria type of proposal," Parker said.

One crucial variable is whether the airport is going to be able to use two firetrucks and the fire station that belong to the Arkansas Air National Guard's 188th Fighter Wing.

The wing has been providing fire protection to the airport for years in connection with its flying missions. Parker said the value of that service was applied against a portion of the wing's lease of airport property.

But the wing, which will be renamed the 188th Wing, is losing its flying mission as of Oct. 1, the beginning of the fiscal year, and won't have any aircraft to protect. Thus, it will discontinue its fire-protection mission.

The airport's contract with Pro-Tec is set to go into effect Sept. 15 to allow the company to hire, train and orient the firefighters to their new jobs. Pro-Tec Corporate Fire Chief Bill Ewing said the company plans to hire three local firefighters, each to work 18-hour shifts.

The wing has offered to give two of its firetrucks and its fire station to the airport to use when it takes over fire-protection services. That offer has to be ratified by the National Guard Bureau, Parker said.

No agreement has been reached yet with the National Guard Bureau, although Parker said there is more communication between the military and the airport.

"There has been significant contact now with the National Guard Bureau, whereas before we were kind of in a radio silence mode," Parker said.

He told commissioners he hoped to have an agreement with the National Guard Bureau by Sept. 23, a week before the wing discontinues its service.

If the wing can't provide the firetrucks, Ewing said Tuesday that Pro-Tec can. He said Pro-Tec is working with a company that remanufactures airport firetrucks and could have leased trucks shipped to Fort Smith in five days.

Metro on 08/17/2014

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