Wintergreen / Nellysford
Nelson County, Virginia
“There’s a lot of stuff we have to carry. And as squad trucks go, ours is fairly busy. And so
it’s time for it to be replaced. It’s almost 20 years old. And we don’t want to pay $1 .5 to $2 million for a new one. So we started looking, well, how can we do it differently.” That’s how Wintergreen Fire & Rescue Chief Curtis Sheets said he approached needing to replace their department’s nearly two decades old squad truck.
Press play above to view an extended interview and video segment about the replacement and why the squad truck is so important.
“In the process of of replacing the old truck and thinking about money, they also had to consider keeping the size reasonable to serve the rural area. “I think it’s easy for us to get tunnel vision if we’re only focused on the calls we see on Route 29 with big commercial trucks or whatever. We need more and more and more. But we can’t lose sight of the fact that we’re a rural county and the Nelson farmers who might have an agricultural accident, they deserve to see us at the end of their street too. So we have to make sure that we don’t build a truck that’s bigger than our roads can handle.”
Chief Sheets says the changeover and reconstruction of the old Charlottesville squad truck will take about a year.
