Grant funds provides critical equipment for fire department
BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — Local officials and first responders gathered for a presentation of new equipment provided with grant money at the LaFayette Fire Department on Tuesday, April 21. An oversized ceremonial check for $12,000 represented the funds allocated by the Coosa Valley Resource Conservation and Development Council and was presented to the recipient fire departments. Chambers County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association President Randy Hudson stood as the representative for the departments receiving the new equipment.
“Sen. Price got us a grant for the Chambers County Fire Association for $12,000,” he said. “We were able to get a chainsaw, a blower, chaps, the safety gear and a spare chain with that money for each department in Chambers County. Cleaning roads when trees are down when we have storms, wild land fires, the blowers will come in handy for that. That is the main things that we use them for.”
Hudson shared the importance of the funds and the necessity of supportive grants for fire departments.
“Sen. Price got it started, RC and D called me and Chief Doody got the paperwork done and submitted it,” he said. “They told us we were approved. Then we said ‘alright, when are we going to get it?’ They have always been willing to help us. If we ask for something from Sen. Price or Mr. Fincher they are always willing to help us. It is not easy to get money for equipment. We are appreciative for anything that we can get because this stuff is expensive and we are on a limited budget for all we do.”
Serving the public is an ongoing mission, and Hudson said updating equipment is essential to continuing that mission.
“The only money we get is from the county and it doesn’t go far,” he said. “All of us have got stations with insurance and everything else. That equipment there was [around] $900. That is a big chunk that will help us out tremendously. It helps us out a bunch because a lot of us have got older saws. The blowers, some of us don’t have blowers. The whole thing is going to be a help to Chambers County as a whole.”
Alabama State Sen. for District 13 Randy Price, who was instrumental in providing these critical funds, attended the event and shared his excitement for the new equipment.
“It ran through RC and D who is funded through the legislature in our budget,” he said. “It was just something that we thought if we could help some of our volunteer fire departments because they give so much back to the community. We wish it could have been more but at least what we did tonight is we put some tools in the hands of these chiefs where they can go back and carry them to their departments and help in their communities.”
Price recognized the importance of supporting first responders.
“Throughout my district the volunteer fire departments are part of the community because they are the community in a lot of ways,” he said. “It is a good bit of my district that is rural. Even in the areas that are not rural like in Smiths Station, they depend on volunteers to fill in the gaps because they have a small, manned fire department. That is so important so we just felt like regardless of the size of the fire department they could all use assistance and that is why we put this in the budget this last year.”
