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Fire Chief Andy Metsker |
Chief's Corner
June 14, 2010
On May 28th, 2010, the fire departments of Marshall County received the news we had been waiting for over a year to hear. We were successful in our application to the AFG program as a Regional Grant Request to provide 800mhz communication to all Fire Departments in Marshall County. Below is the article that was in the Plymouth Pilot News on Friday May 28, 2010:
U.S. Senator Dick Lugar was notified Thursday that the Plymouth Fire Department will receive a grant totaling $713,631 for operations and safety. The grants are through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program.
While the grant application itself was written by Plymouth Fire Chief Andy Metsker and administered through the Plymouth Fire Department, it was a group effort of all the fire chiefs in Marshall County, and township officials as well. Each fire department in the county will be reaping the benefits and dollars of the grant.
“I wrote the grant because this is a project that I believe in totally and I’m very passionate about,” said Metsker. “But none of this would have ever happened without every other fire chief and department in Marshall County. All I did was the paper work; they were the ones putting forth the effort. Township departments, town departments, every department in Marshall County gets the credit for this.”
Awarding of the grant was a highly-competitive process that involved submitting detailed paperwork on every incident that every fire department in the county had responded to in the past three years — along with each department’s budget.
“First responders are the backbone of our communities and it is vital to ensure they have the proper equipment and training,” said Senator Lugar in announcing the grant.
The money will go to buy 800 MHz radio equipment so that all departments, along with all local law enforcement, will be able to communicate completely with each other at all times. The money will also go to pay for “vehicular repeaters” — devices that will be on each responding vehicle which in essence makes each a mobile antenna, capable of hooking into the statewide 800 MHz tower system.
“This money will resolve the issues that we’ve had with the 800 MHz system,” said Metsker. “The state added a new tower at Bass Lake that will also help with the Culver issues and the Bremen difficulties are addressed by the second part of this grant. The vehicular repeaters basically act as a tower by itself outside the building. They can then hook directly into the state system from there.
“If there is a tornado, or say a terrorist cuts the State’s T1 line or any sort of emergency that disrupt communication, we will still be able to communicate with each other. Firefighter safety is going to be greatly improved. I’ve already seen that with the (radio) units we have.”
In Fiscal Year 2009, AFG was administered by FEMA’s Grant Programs Directorate in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration. The AFG program provides grants on a competitive basis to rural, urban and suburban fire departments throughout the United States. The grant will have a big impact on budgets around Marshall County.
“This is equipment that normally would have to have been in our budgets,” said Metsker. “With this grant it’s a 90-10 match — we just have to come up with the 10 percent. Each department will have a different portion of the grant, so each match amount will be different but everybody will have enough money to get everything they need. This was a very competitive grant process but we got 100 percent of everything we asked for. I’m confident our issues of communication coverage will be solved with this money.”
The real work begins now with completing the grant as it was written. I appreciate the fact that we have gotten this far and I know it will be a great improvement for communications when it is complete.
July 8, 2009
I would like to start out this month’s blog with a Thank you to all citizens of Plymouth and Center and West Townships for hosting a safe 4th of July. The PFD did not respond to any calls for fire or injury relating to fireworks over the Holiday weekend.
We did enjoy the Bremen Fireman’s Festival parade again this year showcasing Truck 1 in dispensing some bubble gum from the platform. Thanks to all the PFD members who participated in that parade. Also, the Argos 4th celebration has restarted and the Plymouth Fire Department Safe House made an appearance for the weekend.
Other members of the PFD made an appearance at the KidsBigRed3 Triathlon on June 27. I know that the kids work hard on this and they seem to enjoy being “hosed down” at the end of the long run! Family day at the Plymouth Park will take place on July 11 in the afternoon and more firemen will take another truck there to let loose some water on the grounds of the Young’s Amphitheater.
Keep your summer safe and enjoy Plymouth. Remember that the Blueberry Festival will be here before you know it.
June 2, 2009 The Plymouth Fire Department was a busy place this past weekend. I would like to congratulate the members of our department and the others for a successful FF I & II Skills practical. It was held on Saturday and took most of the day to complete.
I would also like to recognize the group of instructors from the PFD who worked to make this years FF I & II class the success it was: Rod Miller, George Cook, John Grolich, Ed Marquardt, Art Jacobs, Wayne Smith, Brian Drobitsch, and Darrell Eiler.
In addition to these instructors, we had many PFD members assisting with the practical skills test: Rich Cartwright, Keith Ellis, Chad Kinney, Heath Neidig, Corey O’Keefe, Zach Marquardt, Greg Carroll, and Jim Bud.
In addition to the Skills practical exam, the Mayor (Mark Senter) of the City of Plymouth declared the last Saturday of May to be Public Safety day. A brief ceremony was held at 10am in front of the station to honor those who serve the public as Police, Fire, EMS, as well as dispatchers and secretaries. We also honored those who have lost their lives in the line of duty as Police and Fire department members from the City of Plymouth. It was very nice to see the members of the community who came to enjoy the ceremony and also for the FOP to provide refreshments for those who came.
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