Support Kingston Articles: 13, 15, and 16
The members of the Kingston Fire Department who serve and protect you with Fire and EMS services, are asking for your support in March on three warrant articles:
Our first request, Article 13, asks the voters to approve $80,000 to be placed in the Towns Capital Reserve fund for future fire apparatus replacement. The next truck due for replacement will be Engine 3 from the Hunt Road Station. Engine 3 is the primary truck out of the Hunt road station and also backs up the truck out of Central. It is critical for us to maintain this fund so that we can replace these emergency vehicles when they get to the point of being unreliable.
Our second request, Article 15 asks the voters to approve $33,000 to purchase a 2013 four wheel drive, four door pickup truck equipped with emergency lights and siren to replace the existing twenty-three year old utility truck. The current truck has extensive body and frame rust and its overall condition is making the vehicle unreliable for emergency use. The utility vehicle provides endless functions, as it is the only vehicle in the department having the ability to carry supplies to and from emergency incidents as well as transporting additional firefighters and EMT’s to and from an emergency scene. Additionally during the winter months it carries our ice rescue sled and during the summer our large floating forestry pump.
We also use the utility truck to tow the fire department boat, air trailer, hazardous material trailer and the Emergency Management barricade trailer. It has played a critical role during the recent ice, flood, wind and snow events allowing us to get crews out quickly opening roads, pumping basements, documenting downed power lines and broken poles assisting the ambulance and checking on the elderly. This truck continues to play a vital role in our ability to provide the services upon which you rely on.
Our final request, Article 16, asks the voters to withdraw $195,000 from existing funds in the ambulance replacement fund to replace our oldest twelve year old ambulance. The fund is maintained by ambulance fees collected by the Town when we transport non residents and has, since its inception funded our ambulance replacement program. The article has no tax impact on the Kingston taxpayer and is only asking to spend funds already accrued. Replacing our ambulances on a twelve year cycle insures you we’ll be responding with the most up to date equipment, without delay, when even seconds can make the difference.
In closing, I want to thank the residents of Kingston for your past support on similar articles and hope to have your continued support this year on the above articles. If I can be of any help answering any questions please feel free to call me at 642-3626 or email at kfd25c1@comcast.net.
Bill Seaman
Kingston Fire Chief
