May 2008
WELCOME
Welcome to the 34th edition of “Between Alarms”.
We will update you on our activities and provide details for our upcoming fundraisers, including our Annual Bazaar.
9th ANNUAL
The response to our 9th Annual Fund Drive titled “Help Us Help You” has been excellent. Through April 30th we received $22,465.00 from 678 donors.
In comparison to our 2007 Fund Drive, both the total received and the number of donors has increased slightly more than 5% each. We are very pleased with the response, especially considering the higher costs of energy that everyone is encountering.
Our reminder mailing to those who had not contributed was sent on May 1st. If you have not contributed, please send your contribution.
Thank you to all who have contributed to date. We sincerely appreciate your donation and your support of our fire company.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
There is a special person in our organization who has been a member for over 60 years and has continuously served as our Treasurer
since 1960. Next month he celebrates a milestone birthday and as part of his celebration we want him to know how much he means to our organization and how much we appreciate all that he has done to help us through the years.
We featured Jim Cornelius in the “Member Spotlight” in our first newsletter in 1991. In May of 1997 we acknowledged Jim’s work by dedicating our new fire truck in his name and holding a dinner in his honor. Eleven years have passed and Jim remains as Treasurer, meticulously keeping our records, depositing our funds and paying our bills. The job has become more complex over the years. Jim has always kept pace with the changes and has never complained about the additional responsibilities that have come his way.
Just as importantly, Jim is respected by all of our members. His opinions are always valued. He recognizes the efforts that our members make. His is always complimentary to us and the tasks completed. Jim encourages the participation of our junior members as he recognizes the many lessons learned by the younger members as they observe and then participate in our organizational process.
Happy Birthday to Jim and much gratitude for all that he has done. Our organization would not be where it is today without Jim having been part of the process.
RABIES CLINIC
Our Annual Rabies Clinic will be held on Saturday, June 7th from 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM. Karen Spiece, VMD, owner of the
disperse the inoculations.
Protect your pet and save money by attending our clinic. Inoculations are valid for one year for animals under one year old and for 3 years for pets older than one year.
Dogs and cats are welcome at the clinic. The cost is $8.00 per inoculation. Plan to join us on the 7th to both provide for your pet’s safety and help us with this fundraiser.
35th ANNUAL BAZAAR
We are busily preparing for our 35th Annual Bazaar to be held July 18th, 19th and 20th.
Mountaintop DJs will provide music nightly. Friday night and Saturday night John Reilly will entertain, followed by Tom Emanski on Sunday.
Our Firemen's Parade will be held on Saturday at 5:00 PM and will tour many
Pat Ward, popular Magician, will perform his magic show Saturday at 7:00 PM. Prior to, and after, his show Pat will be on the grounds to share his magic and balloons.
Our very popular New Merchandise Auction will be held on Sunday at 5:00 PM.
As always, we will offer a large assortment of food items and beverages, games and prizes. New games will be featured from Fund Raising
We will feature our game “Faces in the Crowd” again this year. On both Friday and Saturday night we will be taking photos of those in attendance and posting the pictures on our website www.MTHC1.com. If your picture appears on the website and you return to the Bazaar and go to the Hose Company Store, we will give you $5.00 in tickets to spend at the Bazaar.
Our "Big Ticket" will be mailed in June. It will contain 50+ prizes, all donated by local businesses. Five tickets will be sent in the mailing. The tickets are $2.50 each. You can return your ticket stubs via mail prior to the Bazaar or drop them off at our Big Ticket stand during the Bazaar. Your purchase of the Big Ticket represents all profit to the fire company, which gives us an excellent base for our total Bazaar profit.
The Bazaar opens at 5:30 PM on Friday, 5:00 PM on Saturday, and 4:00 PM on Sunday. Please mark your calendars to join us in July to enjoy the company of your neighbors and friends at this family oriented event.
BAZAAR AUCTION AND THEME BASKETS
Our popular New Merchandise Auction will be held Sunday at 5:00 PM during the Bazaar. Our skilled auctioneer, Frank Orloski, Jr., will conduct the spirited bidding. Brand new merchandise, including appliances, lawn and garage equipment and automotive accessories will be auctioned. Also, there will be collectibles, merchandise and restaurant certificates, event tickets and loads of other items.
A list of the Auction items will be posted on our website, MTHC1.com, advertised in the Mountaintop newspapers, and posted on the Bazaar grounds.
The Auction is at 5:00 PM. It will be held in the firehouse building with plenty of seating available.
Our Theme Basket Auction is enormously popular. Over three dozen beautiful baskets are available, offering items of interest for all ages. Everything in the basket stand is donated. Bob and Mary Barley donate most of the baskets. Individuals or businesses of the Mountaintop area donate the contents. Several basket contents are also purchased through donations received from the industries in the
If you would like to donate to either Auction or organize a basket, please call Dave Hourigan at 715-7750 during the day or 474-9381 in the evening.
HELP WANTED
Running the Bazaar requires a lot of help. Fortunately we have many faithful volunteers who return year after year, however we always welcome additional helpers. Jobs are available in our food and game stands, and the shifts run for a few hours each day. Working at the Bazaar offers an ideal opportunity for students to obtain their community service requirements and we are pleased to have them help. Please contact Dave Hourigan at 715-7750 or 474-9381 if you would like to volunteer.
F.M. KIRBY FOUNDATION, INC. GRANT RECEIVED
We are delighted to announce that the F.M. Kirby Foundation, Inc. has once again recognized our efforts with a grant of $6,000.00, which we received in March. The funds were used to purchase computers to enhance our technology and communications in our operations, which are detailed in our “Technology Improvements” section.
We are grateful to the F.M. Kirby Foundation, Inc. and the Kirby family for the contribution and their ongoing support of the fire company.
THE ALARMS
In the period of November 1st to April 30th we responded to 54 calls to help. The calls were as follows: Motor Vehicle Accidents – 17;
Assist to EMS – 6; Automatic Fire Alarms – 5; Assists to
– 5 (2 structures fires, 1 electrical fire, 1 CO alarm and 1 natural gas fire);
Land Life Flight – 4; Vehicle Fires – 3; Brush Fires – 3; Carbon Monoxide
Alarms – 2; Structure Fires – 2; Assist Police Department – 2; Smoke Investigation – 1; Wires Down – 1; Gas Leak – 1; False Alarm – 1; and Assist to Butler Township – 1.
The call volume in the period was increased, with our responses to motor vehicle accidents more than double than the average responses in the period. Some of the accidents involved serious injuries.
The explosion and resulting fire at the Transcontinental Gas Line station on
TECHNOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS
The grant of $6,000.00 from the F.M. Kirby Foundation, Inc. was used to completely replace the computer equipment we use in our operations for the firehouse.
We purchased two Dell desktop computers for the firehouse and two Dell laptop computers which are housed on our rescue truck and first due engine. One of the desktop computers is set up as a server and all of the computers are on a wireless network within our building.
The computers allow us to do our incident reporting with the State, store our resident/business information files and store our personnel files. We also maintain all of our training records in the files.
The computers have four different Hazardous Materials programs which we can use/refer to when answering calls. They are also able to be used in our training as there are webcasts available from fire service publications/information systems that we can use.
The new computers replace old computers that we used and bring us completely up to date in being able to use many of the technological resources available in the fire service. We are grateful to the F.M. Kirby Foundation, Inc. for the contribution that made the purchase of the equipment possible.
ALWAYS TRAINING
The potential hazards we face in the fire service are continuously changing and increasing, therefore the level of training that firefighters must have intensifies with the changes.
Many of our members spend their time attending courses/seminars to receive training. Working toward the designation of Firefighter I, several members completed modules of the Delmar course of study which includes 16 hours of intro to the fire service, 46 hours of fire ground support, 41 hours of exterior firefighting, and 54 hours of interior firefighting. Other classes taken include structural burn, Haz Mat operations and emergency vehicle operations. Four members commuted to Monroe County 3 days a week for 10 weeks to attend the Delmar classes.
Most of the courses are conducted by and paid for by the State of
GRANT NEWS
We have been awarded a grant from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Volunteer Assistance Program in the amount of $21,386.57. The grant covers the period of 2007-2008. Funds will be used for the replacement of hose, nozzles and adapters that we use on our engines, the replacement of a set of air bags carried on our rescue, and for miscellaneous tools to be housed on all of our vehicles.
Unfortunately we learned in March that our 2007 application to the Department of Homeland Security’s Firefighters Grant Assistance Program was denied. We recently applied for the grant in the 2008 program offering.
The grant would be used for the replacement of 24 of our self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), 36 air bottles and an accountability system to keep track of our members when using the SCBA equipment. The total cost of this project is $156,888.00 and we have applied for a grant in the amount of $125,510.00. Our existing air bottles face mandatory replacement in early 2010 and our SCBA equipment is becoming obsolete as there have been two
National Fire Protection Association mandated upgrades for newly manufactured equipment that our SCBA does not have. With the mandatory replacement of the bottles pending and the aging equipment we have, we feel that there is a better chance that we will gain approval for our application.
FROM THE PRESIDENT
It has been an extreme honor for me to have the opportunity to work closely with our Treasurer, Jim Cornelius for the past twenty five years. Although sometimes I think that Jim thought I fell on my head when I approached him with some of the new projects/ideas that I wanted to explore or undertake, he always listened. Whether Jim agreed with the project or not, once we decided to undertake a project or change Jim always supported the project or change. In reality, Jim and I have worked together longer than many people have been married. It has been a wonderful relationship. I will always treasure Jim’s friendship, confidence and the lessons I have learned from him.
Thanks Jim for being a good friend to me, to all our members and to all of Mountaintop. Happy Birthday too!
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Thank you for all the kind comments I received in response to our November newsletter. It is rewarding to me that the newsletter is so well read and that many look forward to receiving it.
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Spring has arrived early for a change. Each day with more sunlight plus blooming trees and flowers is invigorating. There is much to plan and much to look forward to in the months ahead.
My best wishes to all for a great summer. As you plan your events, save a day for us on the third weekend of July to support us and visit many friends during our Annual Bazaar.
Be safe,
Dave Hourigan
