To: Residents/Taxpayers of the Town of Gardner                                         

Date: September 11, 2012

Subject: B.U.G. Fire Department Utility Truck Donation

Dear Gardner Town Residents,

At the August 29^th, 2012 B.U.G. Fire Board Meeting, the board of directors received a presentation from Fire Chief Curt Vandertie regarding an advertising/donation project that he and the fire department members have been working on in recent months.  This project involves the selling of advertisement space to be placed on a used Chevrolet 1500 extended cab pick-up truck which would be purchased from the selling of the advertisement rights/space to our local businesses.  Each participant depending on the size of the space required would have their advertisement on the truck for a 3yr period.  There are two space sizes available at the cost of $250.00 or $500.00.

The purpose of this project was to see if enough money could be raised by selling advertising space and getting private donations or grants for the purchase of a used utility type vehicle for use by the B.U.G. Fire Department.  The raising of this money comes through the B.U.G. Firemen’s Association 501©3 charity/non-profit status.  The firemen would raise the money and purchase the vehicle, and then donate the vehicle to the B.U.G. Fire Department.

The utility truck would be used for conducting fire inspections, going to training, educational purposes, promoting the B.U.G. Fire Department, picking up expended supplies such as foam and other things used up while fighting fires etc.  It also shows Community support for our Fire Department.  Having this vehicle would eliminate the use of the larger trucks to conduct these activities and duties.  It would also eliminate mileage expense that gets paid when the use of a private vehicle gets used for department business. This program is a way to raise money by the firemen and use it to purchase firefighting equipment for the department.

To date the B.U.G. Fire Department has raised around $35,000.00 for this project.  The truck will be fully equipped with lights and siren, radio and other fire equipment.  The Fire Board of Directors has agreed to accept this vehicle into the B.U.G. Fire Department as a donation from our Firefighters Association and at no expense of tax dollars.  I give credit to the Fire Chief and his staff for thinking outside the box in trying to keep expenses down.  I also think this is a great promotional idea to show the people in our towns that the fire department is active and working to promote the health and safety of our communities.  Please join with me to extend a sincere thanks to all of our B.U.G. Firemen & Firewomen for their time and dedication and their efforts to keep our fire department costs down.

Jon D. Koch