July 22, 2002

"I've got a continuum laser here."

"I'll swap you a 1983 Hahn 1250 pump fire engine for it."

"I'll throw in a low-angle X-ray ..."

"Deal!"

It didn't go exactly like that - state agencies disposing of property is never quite as simple as a handshake. But the net effect of a couple of recent property transfers was that the Health Center acquired a needed back-up fire truck from Storrs. And researchers in the Departments of Pharmaceutical Science and the Electrical and Computer Engineering in Storrs received equipment they needed from the Health Center.

Captain John Kowalski, left, and Lieutenant Williiam D. Perkins stand in front of the Health Center's new backup fire truck, acquired as part of a property exchange with Storrs. Photo by Peter Morenus

"This was a great deal for us," said Carmine Centrella, deputy fire chief at the Health Center. "In the past when our engine was going off-line for maintenance or certification, we had to borrow one from Farmington or Avon. Neither town has a spare one now," he said. "But now we've got a good piece of equipment, the price is right, and it gives us flexibility."

The University's Fire Department in Storrs acquired a new truck last December. Space is limited and there wasn't enough room for three trucks.

"I was hoping to donate it somewhere it could be used as a back-up piece," said Francis Williams, deputy chief of the University Fire Department. When the Health Center's truck went out of service, he knew they were looking for a replacement. "I thought, 'It would be a big help to them'," he said.

The low-angle X-ray and the continuum laser and its associated parts - a laser power supply and a remote laser starter box - became surplus when the Health Center reoriented its programs around the Signature Programs and the Research Strategic Plan.

The equipment is costly but surplus, so making it available to the extended family in Storrs made perfect sense.

Dr. Richard Berlin, associate dean for research planning and coordination, said the exchange was neither a trade nor barter: "The equipment became surplus through programmatic redirection, and we sent it to where it could be used and would do the most good."

UConn's fire truck-gift was immediately useful too: it arrived in Farmington the first week of July and went into service the following week, when the Health Center's other truck went in for scheduled maintenance.