Reporter Josh Farley was all over the fire on a yacht in Port Orchard marina this morning. It was pretty dramatic. Smoke from the fire could be seen along the coastline all the way to East Bremerton.
According to the story, “Crews couldn’t get the water mains in the marina to function, so a Port Orchard police officer invited two firefighters aboard their 31-foot police SAFE Boat and they were able to tow the burning boat away from the marina, police chief Al Townsend said.”
I just got of the phone with chief Townsend, who said, “That boat just paid for itself.”
“That boat just paid for itself.”
Let’s see. How much did the boat cost? How much does it cost on an annual basis? Show us the numbers.
Blue Light,
I’m sure if you ask the boat owners and the owners of the Marina if they thought it was worth it they’d say yes. Public Safety is not a commercial enterprise it’s business is saving life and property. Real sorry the Chief didn’t post a spreadsheet to appease the haters.
Public safety would have been better served by having the hydrant properly maintained, Sugarloaf. What’s the price of the Safeboat, Chris?
Well Blue Light,
According to their website. http://www.safeboats.com/default/sales.php. It appears to cost anywhere from 50K to 2.5Mil a boat depending to the customers’ needs. So why not learn to do some research….?
The total cost of the boat, purchased in Sept. 2007, was just over $350,000, $263,573 of which was covered by a Homeland Security grant. The city’s match was about $84,000 and was covered by a surplus in the police department budget in 2007 from unfilled positions as well as proceeds from sale of the department’s old boat. The cost to operate the boat, including maintenance, is covered largely by boater registration fees, police chief Al Townsend said.
So it doesn’t appear the taxpayers are picking up the tab for saving other people’s yachts.
I meant to say, at least not the people who pay City of Port Orchard taxes. We all pay on a federal level of course. Chris Henry, SK reporter
Public safety would also be better served if people didn’t drive drunk, or if they would stop at red traffic signals, or not assault their spouses, etc., etc. But we as a community can’t wait for people to always do the right thing. Thats one of the reasons we invest in public safety and law enforcement. This boat deal is no different. If you owned a boat in the vicinity of the one on fire, you would be grateful that the police moved it away from there so many more weren’t destroyed.
Brilliant, AFDad, your “research” pinned the price “anywhere from 50K to 2.5Mi”. Maybe YOU should “learn to do some research”, yourself.
Thanks, Chris. It seems to me that before a reporter posts a headline “Police Boat Just “Paid for Itself” Chief Says”, one might want to know what that price might be.
Mayor Copolla recently threatened to “get deep in the pockets” of some of his constituents. He should expect some fiscal scrutiny.