It was a five-hour haul for Byron Fire Protection District board member Jeff Bain to Carbondale. But Bain said he didn’t mind the trip south. He used it as an excuse to work in a visit with his daughter who lives in Pinckneyville. Bain said he’s familiar with the region because after his daughter attended SIU, she married a man from Southern Illinois and stayed.

Bain, a retired Illinois state trooper who serves on the board in Byron, which neighbors Rockford, said it feels good to help out a fire district in need. That northern community used the 1995 truck for its dive response team that is called to water-related emergencies. The fire district recently purchased an upgraded truck. Then, the board engaged in discussions about whether it should sell the truck or donate it, he said. 

“We were more prone to give it away to help out another fire department that isn’t as fortunate as us," he said. 

Bain said the Byron Fire Protection District has a budget in the millions, thanks in large part to the Exelon-owned nuclear power plant that is located just outside the city limits in unincorporated Ogle County, but within the taxing district of the fire board. 

In making its decision, Bain said that board members recognized that there are many departments with needs throughout the state, but they really wanted it to go to a small department that is truly financially struggling. The type of truck donated costs about a quarter-million dollars purchased new, he said.

The budget for the all-volunteer fire department in Vergennes is only about $8,000, said Trish Sherman, who is a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical responder, as well as the office manager for the Village of Vergennes. She said this will be the newest truck the village owns. Other vehicles they own date back to the 1970s and 1980s, she said. Without the generation donation of Byron's fire district, Vergennes would not have been able to afford this truck, she said.