The Marion County Board presented each of the county’s eight fire protection districts with $10,000 checks during Tuesday night’s meeting.
The checks are coming from $60,000 in CURES money the county has received from the federal government for COVID-19 recovery and $20,000 from Supervisor of Assessments Mark Miller as a thank you to the 911 system for providing his office with information from a recent flyover.
County Board Chair Debbie Smith and Miller presented the checks to the chief’s of the Salem, Centralia, Odin, Patoka, Kell, Kinmundy-Alma, Sandoval, and Iuka Fire Protection Districts.
Smith also praised the work of the departments.
“Volunteers are being paid, you don’t find volunteers like you did years ago. And you gentlemen use your own expenses to operate and make sure people are safe in their homes. And you go above and beyond and I want you to know the County Board did see that. We recognize it and this is a small token but it is coming from our heart. We just wanted to let you know thank you very very much.”
Kell Fire Protection District Chief Lonnie McDaneld made the request for assistance, noting while the fire departments were on the front line of COVID-19 response, no additional funding had been set aside for them.
“We were very pleased and very thankful that you guys were receptive and listened. And we feel like we made great strides with our County Board. We want to thank you very much and this is very much appreciated.”
Several county board members also told the fire chiefs not to be shy in coming before the county board in the future when they have a need.
