A local fire department is seeking a federal grant to help acquire a new $1.2 million fire truck.

As required through the grant program, Long Hill Township would provide $60,000 in matching funds to make the purchase possible.

The Long Hill Township Committee, at its Wednesday, Jan. 13 meeting, approved a resolution that authorizes the Millington Volunteer Fire Company to apply for $1,140,000 in federal funding assistance.

Those federal funds would come by way of an Assistance to Firefighter Grant (AFG) through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"Millington Volunteer Fire Company would like to submit a grant application to the Department of Homeland Security's Assistance to Firefighters Grant to purchase an aerial apparatus," according to the resolution.

The "estimated cost of this apparatus is $1,200,000 with a required minimum of not less than 5 percent cash match by the township."

The $60,000 cash match would be provided through the Capital Improvement Fund.

The Jan. 13 action by the Township Committee marked the second straight meeting its members approved a federal grant request to improve Long Hill's fire service.

The Long Hill Township Fire Department has previously used federal grant funds to purchase SCBA equipment and a fire truck.

For more information, view www.newjerseyhills.com

 

The Washington Fire/Rescue team said they were assisting the Goldsby Fire Department to fight a grass fire when their truck was involved in an accident.

The roll-over crash totaled the department's brush pumper truck.

The department said all firefighters were fine and there were no injuries.

The department thanked residents for their calls of concern in a Facebook post late Sunday evening.

For more information, view www.koco.com

 

Pete Lohmer recently donated the open-top truck to be used in parades and funerals for firefighters either killed in the line of duty or after they've retired. The Waco Fire Department Honor Guard/Pipes & Drum nonprofit organization is thrilled with the vehicle, which began its history not far from where Lohmer's 2003 adventure began.

Dillon, a town of about 4,000 residents, bought the truck new in 1956 from an American LaFrance dealership in New York. It still has Dillon's name on it, along with the No. 3 engine number.

Former Dillon Volunteer Fire Chief Roy Cornell remembers the truck well. Cornell spent 32 years with the Dillon Volunteer Fire Department and was fire chief from 1988 until his retirement in 2000. He now drives school buses in Dillon.

"I'm surprised it's in Texas now," Cornell, 76, told the Waco Tribune-Herald. "I suppose the weather's better for it."

He remembers driving the open-top vehicle around Dillon in temperatures well below zero degrees.

"This is better than finding out it's in a junkyard," he said. "I kind of grew up with that truck. That was a new truck when I was a kid in school."

Current Dillon Fire Marshal Rick Later said Dillon is known for its fly-fishing and hunting, especially during the summer. The fire department, formed in 1905, has a large jurisdiction in southwestern Montana, probably "bigger than some states back east," Later said.

For more information, view missoulian.com

 

Last February, Mayor Ken Mueller signed a resolution calling for the village to spend $170,000 in TIF funds to help pay for a used platform ladder fire truck.

Instead, the money was taken from the village's Illinois 159/Boul Avenue Special Business District fund and village leaders are not sure why that happened.

Village officials discovered the incorrect fund was used after Jim Rauckman, the former mayor of Swansea, complained that the $170,000 should be returned to the TIF fund because he believes TIF funds may have been used improperly to help pay for the 2002 Smeal/Spartan fire truck that cost $340,000.

Rauckman's attorney, Esther Seitz of Springfield, sent letters to the village on Nov. 17 and Dec. 17 raising concerns about the TIF spending.

On Dec. 21, the Village Board went into a closed session to discuss Rauckman's complaint.

And now Rauckman has filed a lawsuit alleging the Village Board violated the state's Open Meetings Act when the board went into the closed session.

For more information, view www.bnd.com

Firefighters were called too late to save a garage building but kept flames from spreading to a home early Monday morning. No one was hurt in the fire reported a little after 3 a.m. at 512 S. Alder Road in the Four Seasons Park community east of Port Angeles. Flames consumed the garage and storage building before firefighters from Clallam County Fire District Nos.
- PUB DATE: 2/1/2016 11:37:32 AM - SOURCE: Peninsula Daily News