Funding to outfit fire department’s new tanker approved

by Melissa Martin

July 16 township trustees meeting

Hinckley Township trustees approved a $7,100 request made by Fire Chief Jestin Grossenbaugh to outfit the fire department’s recently acquired tanker truck.

“We took two trucks and combined them into one and are replacing a 30-year-old tanker,” he said. “We are updating equipment that has been 30-plus-years-old on the tanker and ordered new tools based on how the tanker is going to be used going forward.”

The department took possession of the $740,000 tanker, which replaces the department’s 18-year-old fire engine along with its 33-year-old tanker truck, in May from manufacturer Ahrens-Fox.

The new apparatus has features of both an engine and a tanker, Grossenbaugh said. It can carry and dispense 2,000 gallons of water, features a pump, compartments to store equipment and a hose bed, and seats up to four firefighters.

When the department purchased the vehicle last year, Grossenbaugh said Hinckley does not need three trucks. He said the department typically responds to an emergency with one or two trucks, since mutual aid partners bring additional vehicles to the scene.

Having one less vehicle, he said, also allows the department to save on maintenance costs.

“All the ground ladders have to be tested and certified, and then the thousands of feet of hose on each truck have to be tested each year as well, plus everything else that goes in with the normal wear and tear of the vehicles,” Grossenbaugh said in 2023 “Now we’re eliminating a third of that cost by just going to two vehicles.”

Firefighter candidates

Trustee Monique Ascherl said the fire department is moving forward in the hiring a full-time firefighter/paramedic and asked that the entire board of trustees sit in on the final interviews instead of just the fire department liaison.

“We all have different questions to ask,” she said.

Engleman welcomed the idea, noting that she believes having the input of all three trustees would be beneficial.

“When it comes to full-time positions, we don’t have too many of them in the township,” she said, noting that having all three trustees participate in the hiring of the township’s full-time zoning inspector turned out to be fruitful.

Grossenbaugh said the department received 12 applications. That number was whittled down to seven candidates, then to the final five, whom the department and trustees planned to interview July 26. He said along with himself, the township’s assistant fire chief and lieutenant, three other fire chiefs from Brunswick, Seville and Lafayette took part in the preliminary interviews.

“We had a lot of experience [on the panel] and an actual stakeholder [as one of the chiefs is a Hinckley resident],” he said.

Fireworks

Grossenbaugh also reported that this was the second year fireworks were legally permitted in the township on the Fourth of July holiday and said there were no incidents or injuries reported.

“We had more responses, I thought, when [setting off fireworks] was illegal because of people complaining,” he said. “[In one previous year, for example] we had one [resident] who set up a large display with consumer-grade fireworks on Ridge Road and somebody called that in. We had to call in the fire marshal in and dispose of all of it on July 5 on a hot summer day. But since it’s been legal, we’ve been very, very lucky.”

Facebook policy

In other news, trustees approved a resolution adopting an official social media policy for the township, effective July 16. Not only does the resolution stipulate that all posts on the township’s Facebook page be maintained in accordance with the township record retention schedule, but it also requires that all topics to be posted on the site receive prior approval to by the three trustees.

Additionally, the resolution requires that events, such as the township’s Independence Day Parade, be posted as events and that the commenting and messaging functions are turned off. It also ensures that township posts be sharable to allow for maximum circulation throughout the community. ∞