The public water system here should be operating normally by noon today, according to the Steve Kenney, manager of the Southwest Harbor Water and Sewer District. Kenney said the main pump that moves water from Long Pond to the treatment plant became clogged with debris and stopped operating on Friday morning.

As a result, no water was being pumped to replace that being used in the town. Kenney said his attempts to rent a portable pump proved fruitless. Fortunately, the Southwest Harbor Fire Department came to the district's aid.

Firefighters set up a fire truck at Long Pond at 1 p.m. Sunday and began pumping water from the pond uphill a few hundred yards to a hydrant that flows directly into the water treatment plant. Shifts of firefighters kept up the effort through the night and expected to remain until the pump is back online.

"They've been awesome," Kenney said.

Kenney said town and district employees and members of the public came forward to lend a hand. Scott Alley of the town's highway department came down in the night to refuel the fire truck.

"It was good teamwork; a good community effort," he said.

Kenney said he was surprised at the amount of debris that had clogged the pump.

"It was chockablock full of leaves and sticks," he said. "Something must have happened to the screen."

Under a bill expected to be heard at Monday night’s meeting, the city is buying a new rescue unit that will be housed at Fire Station #4.

Fire Chief David Downey says the move should help public safety especially on the freeways.

"On behalf of the Osage Fire District No. 4, we have purchased a new pumper tanker to replace two trucks and in turn, being that Scranton comes over and helps us a lot, we have an '86 D-1 Pumper that we are going to donate to Scranton to use," said Rogers. "The truck only has 12,000 miles on it, low miles. But what we are doing, in turn, you can use it all you want, but when you want to get rid of it, you have to turn around and give it back to us, and have insurance on it. "Other than that, it will be your truck," Rogers said. "We brought it over here tonight and you can have a look at it, if you want to look at it. It has a 1,000 gallon tank on the back, 1,000 gallon mid-pump on it, so it's structurally rated for ISO, so those ratings will not change. The pump just came out of the shop from Olathe about a year ago, had new parts put on it. The truck runs fine. There's nothing wrong with it."

"So if we ever get around to buying another new truck, we can use that one until then," said Croucher. "It will replace the '72 we got, which is on its last leg anyway. This is going to help our ISO a bunch."

"That's awesome," said Gary Burkdoll, mayor.

"We really appreciate Ken and the Scranton fire department coming over to help us out a bunch," said Dale.

Croucher encouraged the council members as well as the audience in attendance to look at the truck, which was sitting in the driveway by the city hall. All the council members exited the building and agreed that the donated truck was an awesome fire truck.

Viewer Tim Diener sent WLWT a video from the Clifton area showing a fire truck descend an icy hill. It happened around 12:30 a.m. on Euclid Avenue.

The fire truck slid on the icy slope and plowed into several vehicles parked along the road.

Using the truck that is being replaced, firefighters and other onlookers, including village leaders in attendance, on Dec. 6 hosed down the new truck that was to start its duty at Skokie Fire Station 16 on Niles Center Road. One by one, they took turns giving the shiny truck a shot from the water-charged hose from the outgoing truck before drying it off. Then several firefighters pushed the truck — well, simulated pushing the truck so as not to cause hernias, Walters joked — into the station to begin its run.

The new rig isn't any old truck, Walters said. Even the firehouse itself had to be prepared for the addition.

"These stations are 50 years old and the rigs were a lot smaller at one time," he said. Firefighters used to ride on the tail boards, after which cabs and then enclosed cabs were built onto trucks for safety reasons so they became longer and higher.

According to fire officials, the new truck measures 11.8 feet high and 47.6 feet long with the basket.

Fire officials after the ceremony showed off the new truck and some of its state-of-the-art equipment on board. There is much more storage than in other trucks, they said. Hydraulic rescue tools — also known as Jaws of Life — are now battery-operated and technologically advanced.