Wednesday, October 31, 2007 

798-5800

Picente Announces Funding for Barneveld, Whitesboro, Maynard, Taberg, Stittville Fire Department Projects

            Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente, Jr., today announced that Oneida County will upgrade community safety in five areas of Oneida County through grants designed to address important security needs identified by community and Fire Department officials.

            “Community security requires attention to the real threats of public safety that are the concerns of our County Legislators, mayors, fire chiefs and residents in Oneida County’s many small towns and villages,” Picente said. “Community security requires that we prepare for natural disasters as well as man-made emergencies and work to focus our resources on critical needs. For most of our communities, the critical need is support to better respond to emergencies and deal with the type of weather-related emergency that can happen at any time. I am pleased to work with all of these communities and fire departments to help them in their mission of protecting and serving the people of our towns and villages.”

            Picente announced the following projects that will be funded out of Oneida County 's award from NYS Office of Homeland Security Program (SHSP). The funding of this grant is from the FEMA National Preparedness Directorate.

            Barneveld – Water Supply Tank Fencing -- $9,500

            “The Village of Barneveld expressed concerns that the security of its water system needs to be upgraded by putting up a fence to prevent unauthorized access,” Picente said. “This is an issue that has very important concerns for the people served by the water system. Security of an important community resource is a very important matter, and I am glad that we are able to address this very serious concern for the people of Barneveld.”

            Maynard Fire District – Emergency Generator -- $15,000

             “When the power is out, the Fire District needs to be able to maintain a full level of services,” Picente said. “Maynard indicated this was a critical need so that there could be a response in the event of a power disruption and also for those times when there is a widespread outage or emergency and a public assembly area might be needed.

            Stittville Fire District – Emergency Generator -- $15,000

            “Because of what we are seeing in other areas in terms of the need for emergency points of assembly, and the trend in recent years of more severe storms that knock out power, we are also seeing a need from our Fire Departments for generators that will provide a safe place for the community and allow for effective, efficient responses to emergencies,” Picente said. “I am pleased we are able to help meet the needs identified in Stittville and other communities.”

            Whitesboro Fire Department – Training Aids / Technology -- $15,000

            “One of the biggest burdens facing our local volunteer Fire Departments is the need for training to keep pace with the types of potential disasters that can happen. Because a number of major transportation arteries run through Whitesboro’s response area, they want to upgrade training so if there are spills or other emergencies, their firefighters are trained and ready. I commend them for their efforts to plan ahead, and I am glad we can help them protect the community.”

            Taberg Volunteer Fire Company -- $7,113.69 – Communications Equipment

            “As we see time and time again in emergency situations, effective communication is the most vital step to a prompt response,” Picente said. “Taberg is in the situation where existing communications equipment has become obsolete, and there is a need for an upgrade to allow Taberg to better communicate with its own personnel and with other neighboring departments.”