The gift came soon after someone called the fire department and inquired about how to make a donation. The caller also asked Moon if the fire department could get anything it wanted, what would it be?

"I told the caller we could use two new thermal imaging cameras. The ones we had were outdated, and they're each $10,000, and we just don't have money in the bank for that," Moon said.

Not long after, a $20,000 check arrived in the mail. Moon didn't quite know what to do. He said the fire board got together and decided to take it to the bank to see if it cleared. 

It did. 

The 9,500-square-foot fire station would be built on Marchand Drive near La. 3089, the main route into Donaldsonville from the Sunshine Bridge, and replace the smaller station that was built close to downtown Donaldsonville on Lafourche Street in 1960.

The Donaldsonville Fire Department, with a staff of 30 paid and volunteer firefighters, provides fire protection for the city, as well as the areas outside the city on Ascension Parish's west bank.

Chief Ronald Kanterman proposed to the Board of Selectmen at its last meeting in February that the department should refurbish its aging ladder/rescue truck, built in 2004, rather than replace it with a new one.

A new one would cost $1.3 million, Kanterman said. A refurbishing job by the manufacturer, Pierce, based in Wisconsin, would be $350,000.

“We could save a lot of money,” Kanterman said.

“We could refurbish the ladder rescue truck and get another eight or nine years out of it,” he said.

The capital expense request for the refurbishing job is not imminent. Rather, the chief plans to ask for the money in 2021, for the 2022 fiscal year.

“We told them now because we don’t want it to be a surprise,” the chief said the next day at his office.

He credited the department’s new mechanic, Rick Petrizzi, who joined the department last year, for the idea of refurbishing rather than buying new. Petrizzi has thoroughly examined the 41-foot, 66,000-pound Pierce Dash, which has a 105-foot ladder attached to the back, and determined that the 500-horsepower diesel engine and transmission are good to go for another few years, to make it to 2022.

The team reviewed ARFF system’s specifications. Despite the outside temperature year-round, AF FES vehicles are generally stored inside climate-controlled fire stations until they are needed. For the testing performed by the team, the vehicles were moved outside as the temperatures ranged from zero to negative 7 degrees Fahrenheit. Each test conducted was based on the vehicle’s capability to satisfactorily store firefighting agents and discharge them in a maximum condition of zero degrees Fahrenheit. Vehicles were tested by running engines at a high idle of about 1300 revolutions per minute. The tests showed that the low heat of the vehicle’s idling diesel engine during the tests created warm air that helped prevent freezing of the discharge system’s piping and other components.