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Due to the condition of the current emergency backup generator at Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory station 17, 109 E. Main St., the WWFT Board on Tuesday approved Chief Joel Shilling to immediately take action to replace it.
In presenting the request for the immediate procurement and replacement of the generator and automatic transfer switch, Shilling said the generators at all three fire stations are bi-annually serviced.
“Back in December of 2025, on the report was that the generator had poor reliability and that parts were starting to get scarce and not be available,” he said. The service technician said that with the station 17 generator being over 40 years old, it was time to start looking at replacing it.
Shilling said his budget for 2026 obviously was already done, and his plan was to budget the generator replacement in 2027. A quote was obtained to get a ballpark estimate of how much a new generator would cost.
Six months later, the generators were tested and serviced again, but “they could not get the controller to go into auto, so the generator will not run, which means we do not have backup power in the event we lose power,” he explained.
Shilling reached out and got a few more quotes. Quotes for the total of the complete project were Keough & Sons Electric LLC, $87,686.43; D&D Electric, $93,327; and Kissinger Electric Inc., $98,750.
“There’s a lot of backside things that have to happen in the background before the generator can be purchased. The current generator does not power the entire station. We have added the street department radio equipment and some wastewater radio equipment in that downtown station, as well as all of our backup equipment. In the event of emergency we can talk to the street department and the street department can talk to us, along with all other departments in the city. So, a lot of that main equipment that we use, that we have to have won’t function with the size of generator that we have, so we need to up the size of the generator,” Shilling explained.
He’s still waiting for NIPSCO to get back to him with a quote because they’ll have to upsize their meter and gas line.
Shilling said he wanted the board’s permission to get the ball rolling. The lead time on a generator, he’s been told, is anywhere from 24 to 28 weeks, so that’s a long time to go without a generator.
He said he wants and they need to get the generator fixed, sooner rather than later.
Fire territory attorney Adam Turner explained the special circumstances under Indiana law which would allow normal purchasing steps to be skipped. There’s also another subsection of Indiana law which allows a special purchase outside of the regular requirements “if there is a situation that seriously impairs the functioning of an agency. And I would also say that this probably meets that requirement.”
City attorney Scott Reust also approved what Shilling was requesting from the board to do, Turner and Shilling said.
The WWFT Board approved the funds to replace the generator and automatic transfer switch, with the final contractor selection and alignment of the engineering scope to be handled at the discretion of the fire chief and command staff to the best match budget parameters and long-term operational mandates.
If the lowest bidder can’t get to the generator replacement for six months, but the next bidder can get there in two weeks, Shilling said that difference should account for something, which Mayor Jeff Grose agreed.
The request also will be taken to the Board of Public Works and Safety at their July 17 meeting.
Silverado Purchase
The board also gave Shilling their approval for the purchase of one new 2026 Chevy Silverado 1500 crew cab short bed Special Service Vehicle 4x4 from Kelley Chevy LLC for $47,653, a discounted price.
Shilling said the vehicle was originally going to be budgeted to be a replacement vehicle in 2027, but through working with the board, the Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners and the Board of Public Works and Safety, “we were able to purchase the Tahoe from the airport, which saved us a significant amount of money, so I’m just requesting your approval to purchase this vehicle with the remaining funds there.”
He said with the Warsaw Street Department having the capabilities to decommission the old vehicle and repurpose some of the lights and other things to go into the new vehicle, that also saves the fire department some money.
“I feel very comfortable with purchasing this, just seeking your approval,” Shilling said.
The Silverado is a replacement vehicle for the WWFT training officer.
Monthly Report
Earlier in the meeting, Shilling gave his monthly report for May. He said they had 246 emergency responses, of which 70, or 28.46%, were overlapping incidents.
Of the 246 responses in May, 159 were medical; 40 were non-emergency calls; 22, public service; 13, hazardous situations; nine, fire calls; and three were rescue calls.
By response areas, station 17 had 115; station 13, had 98; and station 15 had 33.
Shilling reported they had 89.75 training hours and 46.75 hours of community service.
A new piece of the monthly report he added was on apparatus response.
“As I just presented, we had 246 calls for the month of May, and I just wanted to break down - this report breaks down kind of the apparatus response, so, of those 246 calls for the month of May, we had 432 ... apparatuses that actually went out the door. It sometimes reflects that we’re not as busy, but, again, almost double the amount of calls, or times a truck went out the door, or an apparatus went out the door for those calls,” Shilling explained.
On average, he said it takes about 1.4 to 1.6 apparatuses per call. Some calls take one apparatus, other calls may take four, depending on the nature and type of the call.
Travel Requests
All the travel requests Shilling presented to the board were approved.
Those included Fire Marshal Jeremy Williams to Fire Inspectors Association of Indiana North District Bi-Monthly meeting and training in Fort Wayne on July 10, no cost; Division Chief of Training Max Kinsey to Practical Fire/Arson Scene Search and Evidence Recovery in Avon July 14-15, $655; Firefighter Aaron Bolinger to Incident Command (ICS) 300: Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents in Warsaw July 20-22, no cost; Williams to the 27th Annual Indiana Fire Investigation Conference in Danville Aug. 9-12, $927; Kinsey to All Hazards Incident Management Team in Elkhart Aug. 17-21, no cost; Fire Chief Joel Shilling, Lt. Tony Shilling, Assistant Chief Will Kornrumpf, Kinsey and Battalion chief Nate Iden to the First Due Unify 2026 User Summit in Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 20-25, at $3,513.25 each.
On the First Due Unify 2026 User Summit, Chief Shilling explained it was their conference for the First Due reporting software that the fire territory uses. The software has about 11 different modules within it, as well as all their records management system. They’ve been using the software for about three years.
There was some concern about five key people going on the trip for five days, but Shilling said Williams was staying back, as well as two battalion chiefs, and he was confident the department could take care of itself. The travel requests were OK’d.
