Twelve new firefighters weren't fighting fires Monday night. They were fighting for space at the East Manatee Fire Rescue District meeting.
Inside the meeting room at Fire Station No.1 on State Road 70, the men crowded together for their induction. They were so close together that, swearing them in, Chief Byron Teates joked, "Raise your right hand, if you're able to."
Whether it came in the form of the largest group of firefighters to be inducted at the fire station or talks of the soon-to-be-built Fire Station No. 5, there was no escaping the topic of expansion at the meeting.
While work has started on clearing a five-acre parcel of land north of State Road 70 and east of Lorraine Road, commissioners selected Nov. 29 for the ceremonial groundbreaking on the new station.
"We're moving right along," said Commissioner Darrell Phillips, who is acting as the project manager. "We just have to continue pushing forward as fast as we can."
Teates said the fire station should be completed by April.
"I think the next push that the board needs to put in the back of its head is Station No. 6," Phillips said. "As the the district grows, so will community involvement grow, as we can see from tonight, and we need to be able to provide facilities to properly serve Manatee county residents."
In other news:
The East Manatee Fire District received a $136,836 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The money will purchase three thermal imagers and a tracking system.
Fire commissioners approved a $2,250 request to replace the firewall system used by the district's computers. Teates said the district has outgrown its current software system. Firewall systems protect computer networks from intrusions like computer viruses.
Distributed by the Associated Press
