Tamara Gregor
The Duncan Banner, Okla.
(TNS)

MERIDIAN – A new pumper tanker truck is now in operation at the Meridian Volunteer Fire Department.

Meridian Fire Chief Sal Joy said adding the new truck will help the county as a whole with its Insurance Service Office ratings. He said the truck is one of the largest in Stephens County, if not the largest pumper tanker.

The 2008 International Tanker was purchased from Fire Master Fire Equipment, Inc. from Springfield, Missouri for $285,000.

Joy said MVFD put $70,000 as a down payment and financed $215,000 for 10 years.

The pumper tanker will allow firefighters to get water out quickly to fires, Joy said.

“Whether it be our area or somebody who needs mutual aid,” he said.

According to Joy, it’s an automatic transmission truck and most people can drive the vehicle, compared to their last truck which was a manual vehicle.

The new truck will allow fire crews to get more water to the fire scene at a faster rate and more efficiently Joy said. Joy looks to bring the ISO ratings down, as well as response times.

As with any fire, Joy said the more water they can get to the scene, the better the outcome. He said the entire county has worked hard to improve their ISO ratings and response times.

“Just trying to keep the community safe,” he said.

Joy said the pumper tanker holds 3,500 gallons of water. He said this truck can now be sent out first.

“Engine 2 has been great, but this versus the engines, the engines only carry 1,000 or 800 (gallons),” he said. “So that water can go pretty fast.”

This pumper tanker will allow fire crews to sustain water before another water supply gets to the scene.

“Our goal is to get a quick water supply when you get on a structure fire or any fire,” he said. “This will allow us to maintain (water supply) without having to pull off and get water as quick.”

By the time crews need more water, Joy said mutual aid will have time to arrive.

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Joy never hesitates to call for help when a fire ignites. He said the faster they can get people out to help, the quicker they can put the fire out.

The county and its residents have allowed all the departments to purchase better equipment, Joy said.

“It will be a good asset to the whole county, especially Meridian,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing, is keeping my community safe.”

© 2025 The Duncan Banner (Duncan, Okla.). Visit www.duncanbanner.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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The City of Jamestown (NY) has installed new firefighter decontamination equipment at Station 1 of the Jamestown Fire Department, funded through a $25,000 reimbursement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Local Governments Reimbursement (LGR) Program and a $5,000 fine assessed to Allen Street Development, LLC by Jamestown Housing Court, the city said in a press release.

The reimbursement helped offset costs from the emergency demolition of 1061 Allen Street—the former Crawford Furniture complex—after the November 2022 fire left the site structurally unsound and contaminated with hazardous materials. These funds allowed the city to install specialized decontamination equipment at Station 1, which is now fully operational and ready for first responders.

“This investment protects our firefighters, who face hazardous exposures every time they respond to a fire,” said Crystal Surdyk, Director of Development. “With this equipment in place, we can ensure their gear is properly decontaminated, reducing long-term health risks and strengthening our overall emergency response capacity.”

Interim Fire Chief Ryan Roush added: “The new decontamination system is a critical tool for firefighters. They face exposure to hazardous materials on nearly every call, and having the ability to properly clean and maintain their gear at the station is essential for both their health and readiness.”

The 1061 Allen Street property had been a longstanding concern, repeatedly cited for code violations. When the owners failed to take corrective action, the city pursued legal remedies, directing fines toward this project and placing restrictions on the owners’ future involvement with Jamestown properties.

Mayor Kimberly Ecklund underscored the importance of accountability: “The devastation at 1061 Allen Street was the result of years of neglect, and the community bears the cost when property owners fail to act responsibly. Unsafe buildings put residents, first responders, and public resources at risk. As a city, we will hold owners accountable for their inaction and reinvest recovered funds to turn those failures into stronger protections, strengthening public safety and safeguarding Jamestown’s future.”

The installation of this system represents a major step in safeguarding Jamestown’s first responders and demonstrates the city’s ongoing commitment to accountability, public health, and the safety and resilience of the Jamestown community.

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Many fire departments throughout the United States do not have in-house fleet divisions to manage the maintenance and repair of their fire apparatus. They farm out their fleet maintenance to a third-party contractor or to a separate municipal department because they are not large enough to make an internal fleet division an efficient use of resources.

Unfortunately for many departments, farming out these services results in either inflated repair and maintenance costs from third-party contractors or nonspecialized technicians working on fire apparatus. While it would be inefficient for most smaller departments to maintain their own fleet division, it is still possible to properly maintain apparatus at a reasonable cost while ensuring only specialized technicians are working on the department’s apparatus.

Intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) can be used by fire departments to pool together resources with other departments to establish a shared fleet services program. While IGAs have been widely used by the fire service in the form of mutual-aid pacts and formation of specialized teams, they have been largely overlooked when it comes to fleet maintenance and repairs. Fire departments seeking to ensure quality fleet maintenance services for reasonable costs should explore the potential for IGAs with their neighboring agencies.

WHAT IS AN IGA?

IGAs are legally binding contracts that allow municipal governments or fire districts to share resources and collaborate on projects to better serve the needs of their communities. IGAs often provide a community or fire district with a workable method to solve a particular problem. There are generally two main types of IGAs. The first type involves the provision of governmental services on a contractual basis by one government to another. An example would be a small fire department paying a larger department to provide it with fleet maintenance and repair services. The second type involves the joint conduction of a program, operation, or facility by two or more governmental agencies. An example of this would be two or more fire departments coming together to build a regional fleet maintenance and repair facility with services provided to all participants.

ADVANTAGES OF AN IGA

There are two main advantages to an IGA when it is properly designed and managed. The first benefit is cost savings. Generally, when two or more governmental agencies pool resources, there is an economic advantage and improved efficiencies. For example, individually, two fire departments may not be able to afford a specialized in-house fleet maintenance program, but together they can combine resources to make it feasible. The second advantage of an IGA is that it can often improve on existing services. One example would be that a fire department currently using its city’s general mechanics could potentially arrange for more specialized service as part of an IGA arrangement, where all technicians are certified in fire apparatus repair and routinely work on fire apparatus, thus gaining invaluable experience and reducing turnaround times.

COMMON COMPONENTS OF THE IGA

While the terms and structure of an IGA can vary, some common components are almost always included within the agreement. Those components include the following:

Intention of the Agreement: The first section of the IGA should identify the entities involved and describe the fleet management services and functions that will be performed. This section should also describe the existing needs that lead to the agreement. Finally, this section should also cite the legal authorities that allow the entities to enter into the agreement.

Services to be Performed: The second section of the IGA should describe the level of services to be provided by one of th

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will put import taxes of 100% on pharmaceutical drugs, 50% on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, 30% on upholstered furniture and 25% on heavy trucks starting on Oct. 1.

The posts on his social media site showed that Trump’s devotion to tariffs did not end with the trade frameworks and import taxes that were launched in August, a reflection of the president’s confidence that taxes will help to reduce the government’s budget deficit while increasing domestic manufacturing.

While Trump did not provide a legal justification for the tariffs, he appeared to stretch the bounds of his role as commander-in-chief by stating on Truth Social that the taxes on imported kitchen cabinets and sofas were needed “for National Security and other reasons.”

Under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the administration launched a Section 232 investigation in April about the impacts on national security from pharmaceutical drug and truck imports. The Commerce Department launched a 232 investigation into timber and lumber in March, though it’s unclear whether the furniture tariffs stem from that.

The tariffs are another dose of uncertainty for the U.S. economy with a solid stock market but a weakening outlook for jobs and elevated inflation. These new taxes on imports could pass through to consumers in the form of higher prices and dampen hiring, a process that economic data suggests is already underway.

“We have begun to see goods prices showing through into higher inflation,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned in a recent news conference, adding that higher costs for goods account for “most” or potentially “all” of the increase in inflation levels this year.

The president has pressured Powell to resign, arguing that the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates more aggressively because inflation is no longer a concern. Fed officials have stayed cautious on rate cuts because of the uncertainty created by tariffs.

Trump said on Truth Social that the pharmaceutical tariffs would not apply to companies that are building manufacturing plants in the United States, which he defined as either “breaking ground” or being “under construction.” It was unclear how the tariffs would apply to companies that already have factories in the U.S.

In 2024, America imported nearly $233 billion in pharmaceutical and medicinal products, according to the Census Bureau. The prospect of prices doubling for some medicines could send shock waves to voters as health care expenses, as well as the costs of Medicare and Medicaid, potentially increase.

The pharmaceutical drug announcement was shocking as Trump has previously suggested that tariffs would be phased in over time so that companies had time to build factories and relocate production. On CNBC in August, Trump said he would start by charging a “small tariff” on pharmaceuticals and raise the rate over a year or more to 150% and even 250%.

According to the White House, the threat of tariffs earlier this year contributed to many major pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Roche, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly, among others, to announce investments in U.S. production.

Pascal Chan, vice president for strategic policy and supply chains at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, warned that the tariffs could harm Americans’ health with “immediate price hikes, strained insurance systems, hospital shortages, and the real risk of pa

CAMERON MARTINEZ
Skagit Valley Herald, Mount Vernon, Wash.
(TNS)

CONCRETE — The Concrete Town Council gave Fire Chief Jaesen Meacham permission Monday to spend up to $120,000 for the purchase of a fire engine and equipment that will meet National Fire Protection Association standards.

The Concrete Volunteer Fire Department has been borrowing a fire engine from the Skagit County Regional Fire Authority since May.

Meacham wants to purchase an engine for Concrete because if the fire authority has a failure on one of its engines, it would take back the one being used by Concrete.

The town authorized a reallocation of $50,000 from the General Reserve Fund and $70,000 of the total $85,000 associated with the fire department’s budget for the purchase of the engine and equipment.

Mayor Marla Reed and town Clerk Treasurer Andrea Fichter must approve the purchase.

Concrete’s next Town Council meeting will be at 6 p.m. Oct. 6. For more information, visit townofconcrete.com.

© 2025 the Skagit Valley Herald (Mount Vernon, Wash.). Visit www.goskagit.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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