TWO AREA FIRE DEPARTMENTS GET GRANTS

Two Scott County fire departments have been awarded $3,000 grants from the Rural Community Fire Protection program administered by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Receiving the grants were the Oran Volunteer Fire Department in Oran and the Scott County Rural Fire District based in Morley.

The checks were presented by Wallace Brumfield, conservation forester based in New Madrid. Accepting the checks were the department's fire chiefs: Mike Ramsey in Oran and Dennis Albee at Morley.

The money was used by both departments to purchase additional equipment. Each department had to document $6,000 in expenses to receive the grant.

Ramsey said the funds helped with the purchase of four new air packs and six motion detectors for firemen. The motion detectors alert firemen if one of their members stops moving or needs help.

The purpose of the program is to provide wildfire equipment and training assistance to communities of less than 10,000 population. The funds are allocated to selected departments on a 50-50 cost-share basis.

There were 134 fire departments in the state awarded grants this year. The departments received a total of $300,000, half of which was federal money. The remaining amount came from the conservation sales tax.

The Missouri Conservation Department has distributed approximately $3.6 million in 1,956 grants throughout Missouri since the program was funded in 1975.