After taking heated public criticism, Knell stands by questioning need to buy regulators for all Casper firefighters

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Casper City Council member Bruce Knell on Tuesday, March 8. (Screenshot via City of Casper, YouTube)

CASPER, Wyo. — Casper City Council member Bruce Knell on Tuesday said that he has received criticism from some members of the public after he expressed opposition to buying breathing regulators for all Casper firefighters last week.

“Last week we had the discussion on the regulators for the fire department which I have taken a tremendous amount of hell for publicly,” Knell said at the start of Tuesday’s work session. “In fact, I’ve even had some people in the public say they hope my house burns down and we’ll see how fast the fire department comes to clean it up because they will be busy cleaning their regulators since I didn’t want to give them new ones.”

Ahead of the start of the city council’s regular March 1 meeting, City Manager Carter Napier introduced the Casper Fire-EMS Department’s request to purchase 30 Scott regulators and five self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs) using federal CARES Act dollars the city has received as reimbursement for costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The regulator purchases would allow each firefighter to have their own rather than sharing regulators, cleaning those between uses.

Knell said on Tuesday that the criticism he received from members of the public caused him to research whether other departments provide regulators to every firefighter or whether they share regulators. He said that he called every fire department in the state and found that only the Laramie Fire Department has a regulator for each firefighter, equipment it purchased using a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant.

Knell said that with most departments sharing regulators, he doesn’t see a need to purchase one for every firefighter.

“$100,000 to me is just a huge ask for something that is not a necessity,” Knell said. “There was a spin put on it that all of a sudden, I don’t care about our firemen, which is absolutely false. I very much care about our firemen, but I also care about needs and wants when it comes to taxpayer money.”

“…We have a situation now that is already working and continues to work and we’ve just been asked to do something different that isn’t necessary.”

Knell said that he thinks it is his responsibility to raise questions anytime he has those about a spending proposal that comes before the council. He asked that other members of council also research regulators for each firefighter are really needed before they vote to approve the proposed purchase at the March 15 council meeting.

He said that he would also like to see the fire department research whether grant funding may be available if he wants to purchase the regulators.

Council member Kyle Gamroth said he appreciated Knell asking questions and gathering more information about regulators, adding that he would be curious to learn more about the grant funding that the Laramie Fire Department was able to lean on.

“I am a huge fan of gathering more information,” Gamroth said.

Knell said that the Laramie fire chief told him that there is untapped FEMA money allocated for Wyoming that may be available to fire departments.

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