Howard firefighters win grant

PHOTO PROVIDED Members of the Howard Fire Department and first responders gather around the new computer and accessories purchased with funds from the Bethesda Foundation grant. First row: Mark kidder; Barbara Cleeves; Margaret Kidder, and Jay Bennett. Second Row: On Peer, Bob Cleeves, Esther Bowen, Lindsley Kidder, Jeff Brandow, Roger Burdin, Roger Robords, C.B. Sullivan, Mike Kidder, and Brian Patterson.

The Bethesda Foundation recently granted $3,000 to the Howard Volunteer Fire Department to purchase a computer and necessary accessories for its pictometry software, and to purchase medical supplies including jump packs for first responders.

This Fire Department serves the geographically largest fire district in Steuben County, providing fire protection and medical first responder coverage to the entire Township of Howard . The grant provides the Department with tools to identify fire and emergency locations, and to coordinate appropriate responses. The pictometry program utilizes aerial digital photography with specialized GIS viewing via oblique angle aerial images; all for the purpose of identifying the response location more quickly and more accurately. The new computer is essential for viewing this material, and the software is not available to the general public, and it can only be installed on departmental computer units. These maps are updated very two years and provide detailed close up views of buildings and property lines; and are used not only by fire departments and first responders, but also by planning departments, highway departments, and other emergency agencies.

More than half of the grant is allocated to purchasing training materials (course books) and medical supplies ( including jump packs with oxygen, C collars, defib pads, non-rebreather masks, eye wsh solution, and ice packs) for the Department's First Responder Corps.