It’s not the best movie ever set in Pittsburgh, and its acquaintance with reality comes and goes, but the city never looked prettier than it did in “Striking Distance,’’ with all three rivers an impossible blue.
I found myself thinking of the 1993 movie, where Bruce Willis plays a river rescue cop, when I saw that the city is looking to buy a $400,000 fireboat.
The purchase makes sense. There are 61 municipalities in Allegheny County with river frontage (if my hand count is right), but Pittsburgh is the only place that touches the Allegheny, the Monongahela and the Ohio.
Pittsburgh is the nation’s third-largest inland port. Though that port is broadly defined by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, stretching into the four contiguous states from southern New York to eastern Ohio to northern West Virginia and western Maryland, the lion’s share of barge traffic floats past the Point.
If that weren’t enough, add the potential for serious trouble on the riverbanks from train derailments, toxic spills and fires. Up to 75 trains, each loaded with at least 1 million gallons of volatile crude oil, might roll past the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and other riverside attractions in a given week.
Add in the Gateway Clipper fleet, the Just Ducky boats and the pleasure craft that roam the rivers, and this boat should get an unqualified yes, like yesterday. As a city taxpayer, I can see that the cost works out to a dollar and change for every man, woman and child who lives here. That’s not life-changing money for the purchase and it might well be life-saving money once it’s here.
Yet it struck me that this is yet another case of an undersized city taking on metropolitan tasks with no help from the greater metro area.
Emergency response is the city’s, not the county’s responsibility. That’s true for any municipality, but this boat will be able to cover more than 24 river miles without encountering any locks and dams. From the Point, it can go 6.7 miles up the Allegheny to Aspinwall, 11.3 miles up the Mon to Braddock and 6.2 miles down the Ohio to Emsworth.
There appears to be no thought of reimbursement for any coverage that boat might provide there or even beyond. The city’s Equipment Leasing Authority voted unanimously in April to allow this purchase after a briefing by Fire Chief Darryl Jones, and didn’t involve the county in that discussion.
Matt Brown, the county chief of emergency services and fire marshal, had no problem with that. It’s early in the city’s process, and he sees the boat’s eventual arrival as a big plus for the region. He guessed the city’s river rescue boats already work outside the city limits a couple of times a month.
The level of cooperation is so ingrained in emergency services, city officials don’t even tally how often its river rescue boats work outside the city. When I asked, police spokeswoman Sonya Toler said to get an accurate count someone would have to to review individual reports for an entire year.
Mr. Jones, the city fire chief, said a fire boat such as this is custom built. He hadn’t chosen a manufacturer when we spoke last month, but a boat that can pump at least 200 gallons a minute and have the fuel capacity to linger is essential.
As for reimbursement, unless a disaster declaration results in federal assistance, none is expected. Disaster compensation is not something anyone hopes to have the need to seek.
So the city alone will buy the fireboat, as it evidently must. In a county with more than 190 volunteer fire departments (and more police departments than Montana the last time I checked), some burdens can’t be shared.
Oh well. Any vehicle owner living in the city, or anywhere else with a local police department, already pays via the gasoline tax for the state police to patrol about half the state’s municipalities. Picking up the tab for a fireboat that occasionally leaves the city is nothing compared to that.
You don’t have to be Bruce Willis to know the value and joys of the rivers surpass whatever we must pay to maintain them. I’ve been checking out fireboats on the Internet and Cleveland has a nice one. If that’s not a clinching argument for this buy, I’m out of suggestions.
Brian O’Neill: boneill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1947
First Published: June 1, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
