Alan Linke has been thankful that the volunteer firefighters at T&C Fire Department can fix fire trucks as well as they extinguish blazes. That's because one of the department's four trucks, a temperamental 33-year-old vehicle, sometimes broke down at the worst possible times: on the way to a fire or at the scene.
But thanks to a federal loan passed through by Central Electric Cooperative in Mitchell, Linke and the crew now have a dependable, modern truck. The unveiling of the $265,000 truck was the highlight of a May 21 open house at the station. The $212,000 zero-interest loan came from the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Economic Development and Grant Program, or REDLG.