Leetonia to use grant for firetruck

The village provides fire
protection to other areas.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

LEETONIA — A family worked together to prepare a grant application that will result in the village’s having a new $258,000 firetruck by next July.

“It’s very good news,” said Gary E. Phillips, the village’s administrator. “We definitely needed a new truck.”

The Leetonia department serves the village, Washingtonville, Salem Township, and part of Fairfield Township. Village officials announced the award Wednesday and agreed to pay $12,900 of the total cost.

The grant will come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The grant was approved July 27, and it must be spent by that date in 2008, officials said.

Fire Chief Ken Garlough said the agency has been providing funds to departments with smaller budgets since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Garlough’s wife, Judy, is the village’s fiscal officer, who provided information about the department’s funding.

Their son, Scott, a firefighter and emergency medical technician, researched the specifications for the new vehicle.

Ken Garlough said of the grant application, “There wasn’t a lot of reading, just a lot of paperwork.”

Current trucks

The department has 27 members. For this year, the fire department has $105,000 in a fund that comes from the village’s agreements to provide fire protection to nearby areas.

The chief said the department wants to sell a 30-year-old pumper truck and a 25-year-old tanker truck. The department has pumper trucks from the 1990s that it will retain.

The chief said the village should be able to use the new vehicle for 25 years. The quality of firetrucks has improved in recent years, he said.

The new truck’s specifications will be put out for bid. The chief said there are a number of firetruck manufacturers that are likely to bid on the truck.

The new truck will be both a pumper and a tanker and will allow five firefighters to ride inside.

The chief said the federal government doesn’t want firefighters riding on the back of trucks any more. “You can go out and fight a fire, but they’re afraid you’ll fall off the back of a firetruck,” he said.

wilkinson@vindy.com