The Brookfield (IL) Fire Department has won an $800,000 FEMA AFG, reports rblandmark.com, and will use the funds to replace its two oldest engines with a quint.

Fire officials say the quint is expected to cost between $1.1 and $1.2 million—the single most expensive apparatus the village has ever had to purchase, according to the report. Officials hope to secure pricing via municipal purchasing cooperative to ixnay competitive bidding.

The turnaround time is usually 10 months, the report says, though officials are eyeing one year from today. Once put into service, the quint will replace a pumper that’s 30 years old and a ladder that’s 20 years old.

The department also will be receiving just over $57,000 via the FEMA’s Fire Safety and Prevention Grant Program, the report says. That will be for 11 mobile data terminals for the vehicles, which aim to allow firefighters to get instant information on buildings they’re responding to.

The Monticello (MN) Fire Department held an official ribbon cutting ceremony on its new fire station, 28 months after the ground breaking happened, according to an article published by the Monticello Times.

Firefighters actually moved into the station in 2020, but the pandemic prevented any celebration to mark the occasion, the paper reported, adding the ceremony was held Friday, Sept. 17.

Originally, the city had thought about renovating the old station, but the numbers didn’t add up and a new site was chosen for the fire station, a city-owned property on Chelsea Road, the paper reported.

The new station is considered “state-of-the-art” and it took a third place in a nationwide competition, the paper said.

Despite opposition and criticism from volunteers who will use the new facility, Franklin County, VA, Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 3 to start construction of a new $5.3 million combined fire-EMS station in Glade Hill, according to a report published by The Roanoke Times.

Combining the home for the Glade Hill Volunteer Fire Department and the county-staffed Glade Hill EMS station has been talked about for about 10 years, the newspaper reported, adding that the volunteer fire department currently operates out of a 1960s fire station.

The firefighters said at Tuesday night’s meeting they feared that under the combined arrangement, the department’s equipment and apparatus would end up being controlled by the paid county staff, the first step toward shutting the fire department down, the newspaper reported. The firefighters requested changes that would far exceed the cost of the original bid, the paper added.

At one point during the debate, a letter was presented signed by 20 volunteer firefighters who said they would not use the new building when it was completed, the paper reported.

Supervisors in support of the new station said there were plenty of other volunteers who supported the new station and, faced with a looming deadline on the bid deadline, the board voted to approve the project, according to the newspaper.

After much feuding about the bid process and whether to hire an expert to help design a fire truck, the Arlington (VT) selectboard finally voted, unanimously to buy a $423,556 fire truck, according to a report published by the Manchester Journal.

The Arlington Fire Department had been trying to buy a new apparatus for years, according to the newspaper, and the process nearly got delayed again as the selectboard debated the bids and how they were derived. At one point a former fire chief told the board the bids were so different it was difficult to decide which one to approve, the paper reported.

One of the sticking points is whether the new apparatus would be able to fit through the town’s covered bridge, the newspaper reported, adding that Arlington firefighters are certain the new rig will fit.

The selectboard got the current fire chief on the phone during the meeting to talk about the process and the chief expressed frustration about the selectboard’s indecision and warned any additional delay in awarding the bid would cause a significant price increase and push the replacement cycle out even further, the paper reported.

Debate got testy during the recent meeting, but in the end, the board approved a bid submitted by E-ONE for a pumper on a Freightliner cab and chassis on a vote of five to zero, the paper reported.