GARFIELD — Volunteers with the Northeast Benton County Volunteer Fire/EMS Department work hard and deserve any help they can get, according to state Senator Cecile Bledsoe, who was instrumental in getting $50,000 from a legislative Rural Improvement Grant for the department.

That money, along with a matching $15,000 grant from a rural community grant and money the NEBCO board had budgeted purchased a $165,000, 30,000-gallon tanker for the department.

“This will greatly improve our service to the area,” Kara Funk, NEBCO board chairman, said.

The tanker will be stationed in Station 2, Fire Chief Rob Taylor said.

“You usually can’t buy these (tankers) used. This is the first we’ve purchased new,” Funk said.

“We’re also getting waterat Station 2,” Dave Freeman, board member, said.

“People at NEBCO take the initiative. They don’t wait for others to providethe funds. They get out and do,” Sen. Bledsoe said. “I just wish every volunteer fire department would model afterNEBCO.

“They make it happen and it’s by their initiative. That’s what we like to see,” she concluded.

Community, Pages 6 on 08/31/2011