BYRON – Firefighters in this tiny Oxford County town were so surprised by a property owner’s generosity Tuesday that they visited him and his family in the department’s new firetruck late Wednesday afternoon.
Assistant Chief Bob Susbury said Wednesday that the man declined to be identified by name but presented a $3,000 check from his and his brothers’ business, Rock Creek Manor Partnership LP of Alexandria, Va.
“We were flabbergasted to get that check,” Susbury said of the department of 11 unpaid volunteers and Chief Wayne Hamel.
It was the biggest private donation that the one-truck department had ever received, said Susbury’s wife, Rosie, who is also a Byron firefighter and the town clerk.
“It was greatly appreciated,” Hamel said.
The truck was purchased through a $135,000 federal grant and $15,000 town match.
Bob Susbury said the 2005 Kenworth firetruck was paid for, but a hose-bed cover, radio console, and extra hoses and fittings were not.
Until the donation came in, they were going to try for a grant to get the equipment.
The Fire Department, which was established in the 1970s, is funded mostly through grants that Bob Susbury has helped write, his wife said.
“The extra time at the computer to write grant applications is worth it. We don’t have to go to the town and ask for money,” Bob Susbury said.
It has a yearly budget of $4,000 and responds to an average of 20 calls a year in Byron, and assist Mexico, Roxbury and Andover.
“I don’t think you will find many fire departments that can run on this budget and have all new equipment,” Susbury said.
The new firetruck, which was delivered on March 31, replaced a 1979 International firetruck donated to the department by Mexico.
Grants have helped Byron buy personal protection gear, 12 pagers, two portable radios, and new hoses and fittings for the new truck.
Comments are no longer available on this story