Lovingston
Nelson County, Virginia
On Tuesday evening the fire & rescue agencies from within Nelson County held a private “Touch a Truck” event just for the Board of Supervisors. A few years ago the Supervisors started a program to assist county agencies with the acquisition of major capital items and the agencies wanted to say thanks.
On a rotating basis, the County will assist one fire agency and one rescue squad each year. Every fire department has received assistance and most recently Lovingston Fire Department just started the cycle over when they received a beautiful new Spartan Tanker/Pumper. Every rescue squad has received an ambulance.
According to Chief Curtis Sheets from Wintergreen Fire & Rescue, “The tangible returns of this program are the safer, more reliable and efficient responses this newer equipment affords, the intangible are the improvements to recruitment and retention which occurs when agencies have equipment, they can be proud of.”
The County recognized years ago that volunteerism in Nelson was starting to wane. To do their part to help turn this around they developed this program to relax the fund-raising burden many volunteers face in hopes they could better use their time to train and answer 9-1-1 calls.
