ANNAPOLIS, MD – Anne Arundel County announced a number of changes to its operations that are designed to improve performance of the County’s maintenance shop and fire apparatus fleet. Part of the reasons for the change is that the County’s facility was built to accommodate 150 vehicles. The current fire fleet’s size is 291 vehicles.

The improvements include the following: Provide funding through the budget in order to increase available space; consolidate record keeping to avoid confusion and redundancy due to having separate records at the Fire Maintenance Shop and the Fire Department; training fire personnel on preventive maintenance procedures at the garage; calibrating preventive maintenance based on the hours and time fire apparatus is used rather than miles; and reinstating the County’s Apparatus Specifications Committee to review planned equipment purchases. The County also plans to build an awning to protect County fire apparatus from inclement weather.

“Using all the tools available to us we can provide the Fire Department and the Volunteer Fire Companies with a better level of service in order to keep fire trucks and ambulances on the street and not in the garage,” said John Leopold, Anne Arundel county executive. “We need to work smarter, not harder.”