The real issue for BVFD is that we believe we still own those trucks. The reporter said that the city owns them in one statement, but in another statement he says the trucks were appropriated for BVFD with grant money. To us, the second statement negates any validity to the first statement.
Here's the crux, folks, those trucks were purchased with grant money for BVFD. The grants were very specific in granting that money to BVFD, not the City of Brackettville. In fact neither of the granting agencies involved gives grants to governmental entities. The city insisted, way back when, that they wanted to handle the insurance because it would be cheaper (it wasn't cheaper, but no one at that time did the research) so the trucks were put in the city's name. But when something is paid for with grant money, a process has to be adhered to in order for ownership or use of that thing to be changed. The City never followed that process. According to those grants, the trucks still belong to BVFD no matter who holds title. BVFD should not have trusted the City to honor the agreement. If the City wants to own those trucks free and clear, they have to follow proper procedure to re-appropriate grant purchased equipment.
The trucks may be in the City's name, but they were never granted to the City of Brackettville.
The video.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Regarding KENS 5's take on our story
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2 comments:
i saw the kens 5 show. it looked like the trucks are in better shape anda better station. i know those guys ( county ) put alot of time and moneys into geting those trucks fixed from where you guys bluntly toar them up. give it up already you guys are done. how can you keep voting on new members with no trucks and no station. if in three years the county guys cant hack it you will have your dept. back.
Oh, you're a riot "just another guy." The county is putting a lot of time and money in the trucks. BVFD would have done the same if the county and the city had seen fit to give us the money they'd budgeted for us.
Bluntly tore them up? Yeah, that happens on fires, you should know that if you're a fire fighter at KCFR. According to your fire reports with TFS, you've already "bluntly torn up" your "new" trucks. That's just part of fire fighting.
We keep voting in new members because BVFD is incorporated and as long as we keep training, we're still eligible for grant money for yet more training and more equipment. And as some of our guys are 3rd generation BVFD, we are not ready to give up.
Fighting fires, as you know, gets in your blood. You almost have to do it. We're not ready to quit training, and we're certainly not ready to quit BVFD.
We still have a department, what we don't have is trucks.
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