“Cherokee County’s first responders are our first line of defense,” Rogers said. “I congratulate the men and women of the Cen-tre Fire Department for receiving this grant, and hope it will ultimately help increase the safety for all local citizens.”
Rogers said the grant should be awarded under the 2008 Assistance to Fire-fighters Grant Program, an essential Federal program which supports first re-sponders across Alabama and the nation.
According to the Home-land Security Department, which administers the grant, the purpose of the program is to award funding directly to fire departments and nonaffiliated emer-gency medical service (EMS) organizations. These awards aim to enhance first responders’ ability to pro-tect the health and safety of the public, as well as that of first-responder personnel, with respect to fire-related hazards.
Rogers is Ranking Mem-ber of the Emergency Com-munications, Preparedness and Response on the Com-mittee on Homeland Secu-rity in Congress. “I am pleased to see the Federal government is continuing to make these types of invest-ments in the Third Dis-trict,” he added.
Centre Mayor Tony Wilkie, who is also an active member of the Centre Vol-unteer Fire Depatment, expressed his appreciation to Rogers and others who were instrumental in secur-ing these funds to help the Centre Fire Department provide better protection for local citizens.
“We were notified Wednesday afternoon (March 4),” said Wilkie. “Fire Chief Kevin called me and said, ‘Are you sitting down? Congressman Rogers just called and said we got the grant!’ We are excited. This is awesome.”
“Congressman Rogers called and said ‘Is this Kevin?’” said Ware. “I said, ‘Tell me you’ve got some good news about the grant.’ And then he congratulated me. We all hooped and hollered. We worked hard to get that grant.”
Like other entities, Cen-tre Fire Department has cut back on spending because of current economic condi-tions. Therefore, these grant funds give an added boost.
“We have been trying to secure grant funds for some time,” said Ware. “We are going to be able to purchase some much-needed equip-ment.”
Ware said they plan to purchase a generator for the fire department to use in case of a major power failure, extrication equip-ment to use in vehicle wrecks and other accidents and also a thermal imager, a camera device which can be used to locate fires in-side of walls and also to locate victims trapped in-side of a structure during a fire.
“We are going to be able to purchase 17 full sets of turnout gear,” said Ware. “We have pieced and parted trying to get new gear, but his will guarantee everyone a set. We are ex-cited.”
Ware said they will search carefully and spend wisely as they received the grant funds in coming months.
“It’s not every day $71,000 falls into your lap,” said Ware.
Post a Comment