Resort’s Fire Boat Repair Bid Weighed

Resort’s Fire Boat Repair Bid Weighed
File Photo

OCEAN CITY — The lone bid for replacing the motors on the Ocean City Fire Department’s fire-rescue boat came in slightly under budget.

The town received just one bid for replacing the department’s fire-rescue boat’s inboard motors with twin outboards. Typically, if there is only a single bid for a capital project, the council rejects the bid and re-advertises the project for a second bidding cycle.

However, on Tuesday, the council voted unanimously to accept the lone bid for the boat motor replacements and remanded it to staff for further review. With that bit of business dispensed with, the bid submitted by Marshall Welding was opened and it came it at just over $94,000. The project was budgeted at $100,000.

Since 2013, the OCFD’s fire-rescue boat moored at its berth along the bayside at 13th Street has been an important weapon in the department’s arsenal. However, during an emergency response in the ocean in August 2020, one of the vessel’s two inboard motors blew. Ever since, the fire-rescue boat has been dry-docked as department officials considered the most efficient and economic way to get it back in the water and into service.

The decision was made to switch the two inboard motors with outboard motors. Through the conversion, the successful bidder will remove the existing engines and all accompanying hardware not needed by the outboard motors including transmissions, shafts, muffler, seawater filters and the like. The successful bidder will then provide motors in according with the requirements spelled out in the bid documents.

In 2009, a fireboat workgroup was formed to evaluate the department’s marine resources. Moore Boats, a side project for Ocean City restaurateur Leighton Moore, was commissioned to develop the fire-rescue boat and donated funds to help pay for it. Councilman Mark Paddack asked if the fire-rescue boat was donated entirely by Moore at the time. Chief Richie Bowers explained the financing of the fire boat at the time.

“The owner of Seacrets donated part of the original cost,” he said. “There was a state waterways grant that helped too and we currently have another grant pending for $50,000.”

Mayor Rick Meehan helped explain how the fire-rescue boat was originally funded.

“It wasn’t an entire donation,” he said. “It was a budgeted item. It came in over budget so the owner of Seacrets donated the overage.”

Paddock asked about the conversion to outboards and Bowers explained.

“It currently runs in the bay as well as the ocean,” he said. “We can trim the motors down and get into the shallow waters of the bay.”

About The Author: Shawn Soper

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Shawn Soper has been with The Dispatch since 2000. He began as a staff writer covering various local government beats and general stories. His current positions include managing editor and sports editor. Growing up in Baltimore before moving to Ocean City full time three decades ago, Soper graduated from Loch Raven High School in 1981 and from Towson University in 1985 with degrees in mass communications with a journalism concentration and history.