A report from the Cape Gazette looked at how cuts at the state level are affecting Rehoboth Beach (DE) firefighters, who were planning on replacing the department's aging apparatus fleet, among other issues.

All of the company’s four fire apparatus are over 20 years old, according to Warren Jones, spokesman for the company. What money the company does have is tied up in capital investments to keep emergency equipment on the road, Jones said.

The cuts to grant-in-aid-funding come as the company is facing financial difficulty related to the new Station 2, which was fast-tracked in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and had a pricetag of $4M.

The loss, at least temporarily, of Fireboat 3, a 29-foot-long boat built in 2014 at a cost of about $300,000, leaves the department’s coverage of the District waterways depleted.

The similarly sized Fireboat 2 was sold, and its replacement is about a month away from arriving, said Dabney Hudson, the president of the firefighter’s labor union; it was confirmed by a department spokesman.

Plans for the rebuild of Fire Station 2 on Terrace Hall Avenue are well underway and have been well documented as the town seeks approval for a formal site plan application through the Planning Board.

An approval from the planners is all that is left for this permitting process, with the proposal already earning approvals from the Board of Selectmen, Board of Health, and Zoning Board of Appeals.