The State HazMat Incident Response Teams (SHMIRT) consists of six (6) regional teams who respond at the request of local or Tribal jurisdictions to incidents involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive materials. These six (6) regional response teams work together and separately to provide technician level responses.  A previous grant purchased HazMat response trailers but did not allow purchasing a companion vehicle capable of towing the fully-loaded response trailer. A tow vehicle dedicated to safely move Hazardous Materials Technicians and their equipment to emergency incidents is called out in the plan. Funding was secured last fiscal year to purchase four (4) vehicles for the Regional Teams in Bozeman, Helena, Great Falls and Missoula.  The two (2) remaining units - one (1) for Kalispell and one (1) for Billings may be purchased with a State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) Grant.  A call for sealed bids was issued on 11/29/2012 and published in the Billings Times on 11/29, 12/6, 12/13 and 12/20/2012. Notices were sent to fourteen (14) fire apparatus vendors on 11/28/2012. Bid opening occurred on 12/26/2012 at 2:00 p.m. Two bids were received. Big Sky Fire Equipment, Lewistown, MT bid  $197,824.97  and Heiman, Inc., Lyon, SD bid $195,395.00.

The City Council may approve or disapprove the vehicle purchase. 

In July 2011, the Department of Military Affairs Disaster & Emergency Services Division notified the Fire Chief that the State Regional HazMat Teams' application for the purchase of tow vehicles was approved to be funded in the amount of $155,000.00. Both bids received are over the amount earmarked for this project.  A request has been sent to the State DES Office asking for guidance on how best to proceed. Because the funding for the purchase of the remaining two HazMat tow vehicles was delayed, these funds are not budgeted in the HazMat Grant Fund for FY2013.

Staff recommendation will be made at the January 14, 2013 City Council meeting.