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City officials and members of the Littlefield volunteer fire department gathered at the BASF Plant in Littlefield on Tuesday morning, as the Littlefield Fire Department was presented with a donation to go towards a new fire engine. (Staff Photo by Samantha Pontius)
City officials and members of the Littlefield volunteer fire department gathered at the BASF Plant in Littlefield on Tuesday morning, as the Littlefield Fire Department was presented with a donation to go towards a new fire engine. (Staff Photo by Samantha Pontius)
On Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022 the volunteer fire fighters, Fire Chief Jamie Grey, City Manager Mitch Grant, Mayor Eric Turpen and members of BASF gathered at the BASF plant to witness the first of two donations made to the Littlefield Fire Department by BASF.
BASF has pledged to make two donations of $15,000 each over the next two years to go toward a new fire truck.
City Manager Mitch Grant said the city was award a $400,000 grant through the United States Department of Agriculture for the new fire truck, so long as the city can match the grant money.
“The council had been discussing purchasing a new fire truck and they asked Jaime and I if we would talk to some of our corporate partners in town and if they’d be interested in matching some of the money for a grant. When I say match, I mean, for instance if we spend $100, they match it with 55 percent,” Grant said.
Grant said the city will not actually get the money until they are ready to use it, but it is allocated to Littlefield for this project.
Fire Chief Jamie Grey said he and Mitch Grant asked their corporate partners to donate what they could to help with the purchase.
“We went out and asked all of our corporate partners here in Littlefield if they would be interested in basic donation towards this new fire apparatus – fire truck that is. Those that did make the decision to donate towards this purchase, they donated what they felt they could donate. We didn’t ask for a certain amount of money,” said Grey.
Connie Castillo with BASF said Tony Scolley reached out to the BASF corporate office to see what he could donate.
“We were going to do $15,000 just from us, like here in Littlefield...and then [Tony Scolley] reached out to our corporate office to see what he could donate and then that’s how we came to [$15,000] and they matched ours,” Castillo said.
Chief Grey said the new fire truck is a custom built Quint.
“It’s a fire engine but with a rescue ladder on it and it’s a truck. This truck was about a $965,000 truck and we got a $400,000 grant from USDA...toward the purchase of this very expensive piece of fire apparatus but the future of Littlefield is bright and looking up,” Grey said.
Chief Grey said he is very thankful to Mitch Grant, Mayor Eric Turpen, the city council and everyone that pitched in.
“I’m very very grateful that our city was able to obtain this grant and our corporate partners decided to help out with the purchase of this fire appara- tus because otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible and Mitch Grant...he worked very hard on obtaining that USDA grant, our Mayor Eric Turpen and our city council members and this was a team effort. This wasn’t a one person decision, it was a team effort and a lot of things just fell into place,” Grey said.
Mayor Eric Turpen said the new fire truck will be a great addition for the fire department.
“The fire truck is going to be a great addition to our fleet. It’s got some capability to attack the fire from the air and multi-story buildings. It’s going to be a big plus to our fire department. A lot of our volunteers have went to aerial school already to get...educated on using the truck,” said Turpen.
Mitch Grant, city manager, said it is exciting to get this kind of equipment and this type of opportunity does not come around often.
“It’s wonderful. It’s exciting to get the kind of equipment that you dream of having to provide services and I’d like to brag on our city council, they’ve been aggressive to improve our infrastructure and our equipment and that includes to provide a more consistent and a better service to the public,” Grant said.
Chief Grey said it is not about what this new truck means to him, but what it means for the community.
“...It’s not really so much what it means to me, as what it means to the community, because I believe this is going to help with our ISO rating and it’s going to help the fire department progress into the future,” Grey said. “It’s important that the fire department progress with the progression of Littlefield because the future of Littlefield is bright. We’re excited about Littlefield progressing in the future and growth and it’s important that the fire department grow with it.”
Grey said the new custom built Quint fire apparatus has been ordered and will be ready in the next 18 to 20 months.