Staying with the story
The Springfield News-Sun was the first to report about a Buy Local campaign organized by the Chamber of Greater Springfield and members of the local UAW Local 402. The paper has also provided extensive coverage of Navistar’s recent investments in its Springfield facility and the plant’s impact on the regions economy.
By the numbers
$20,000: Amount Springfield Twp. trustees say they saved by buying a Dodge ambulance
1,500: Approximate number of workers at Navistar’s Clark County plant
$447,000: Cost of Sutphen firetruck
The purchase of a Mexican-made ambulance has lead to discord in one Clark County township, with Navistar union leaders pressuring trustees to buy locally produced vehicles and township leaders countering that they bought a cheaper and better medic unit.
Jason Barlow, president of the UAW Local 402, posted a letter online last week asking residents to attend a Springfield Twp. meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to show support for Navistar.
That’s after trustees spent local tax dollars for a Dodge ambulance that will be built in Mexico rather than a Navistar medic made in Clark County.
“When the government buys products American citizen tax dollars should be spent on vehicles and equipment made in the United State of America,” the letter says. “When this doesn’t happen, we are essentially firing an American employee and hiring a foreign citizen in another country. This is wrong!”
Firefighters and some trustees countered that the Dodge is $20,000 cheaper and better suits the needs of first responders.
Springfield Twp. Trustee Dean Wells said he prefers to buy locally produced vehicles when possible, even if it’s slightly more expensive. But he he voted to buy the Dodge because it was significantly cheaper, he said, and had a four-wheel drive option the fire department wanted.
“Honestly, to be completely fair to the taxpayers in Springfield Twp., we felt that was the proper decision … If we’re even close to the number and we’re dealing with apples to apples, we would definitely go with the local, there’s no question,” he said.
Trustee Jim Scoby also voted in favor of the Dodge ambulance, while Trustee Tim Foley voted against it.
Scoby didn’t return a call seeking comment.
Foley said he voted against buying the ambulance for several reasons, including a recent “Buy Local” campaign that’s a partnership of the UAW and Chamber of Greater Springfield to get local governments in Ohio to purchase the truckmaker’s vehicles. He also didn’t like that the Dodge was made in Mexico and said he never saw a good comparison between the two vehicles.
Last year, township officials also voted to purchase a Sutphen fire truck for roughly $447,000. In that case, after talking to Barlow, the trustees voted to buy the truck body from Sutphen, but use a Navistar chassis to spread the benefits to both companies.
Sutphen is based in Amlin, Ohio, and employs several workers at a facility on County Line Road in Clark County.
Firefighters are working with Sutphen to see if the deal for the firetruck will work. But the Sutphen chassis offers some features the Navistar version doesn’t, said Dave Fairbanks, district chief for Springfield Twp.
The Sutphen cab seats six people, Fairbanks said, compared to five for the Navistar version. He also argued the Navistar version offers less room for equipment and is less maneuverable.
For the ambulance, the four-wheel drive offered by Dodge was key, Fairbanks said, and Navistar doesn’t offer that feature.
Navistar makes a good vehicle and the fire department has two Navistar ambulances, Fairbanks said. But in this case the Sutphen and Dodge options better met their needs. The district chief said he’s been involved with purchasing trucks for more than two decades and has never seen a similar dispute.
“I am more than willing to give (Navistar) a shot,” Fairbanks said. “I also don’t want to shortchange people who count on me to put them in a good piece of equipment.”
The township has also bought another ambulance and a brush truck in recent years that were made in Mexico, said Barlow, who lives in Springfield Twp.
He wants the trustees to rescind their vote to buy the ambulance.
“Ultimately, they need to be supporting American manufacturing,” Barlow said. “When they buy a Dodge chassis that is built in Mexico, none of that taxpayer dollar comes back as a benefit to the American citizen.”
Barlow believes the request from firefighters to buy the Dodge ambulance is mostly in retaliation for the firetruck agreement.
The union president called fire departments in other townships and said he was told four-wheel drive isn’t necessary. If they do require a vehicle with that option, Barlow argued they should have bought one from GM or Chevy instead, for example.
“It blows me away that the fire department leadership are going with this choice, let alone the trustees approving that,” Barlow said.
Wells isn’t sure what’s going to happen at the meeting Tuesday.
“As far as this EMS vehicle, as far as I’m concerned that’s a resolution that has been passed, it has been signed by the trustees and it’s in effect,” Wells said.
The situation will be eventually be resolved, Fairbanks said, but it will take time.
“We’re just trying to be fair to everybody here and it’s going to be hard to do because someone’s going to walk away with a black eye, there’s no doubt,” he said.
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