Grand Island, Neb. — First responses to emergencies in the area will happen more quickly and effectively thanks to a large funding project by the CHI Health St. Francis Foundation.
“We are excited to see so many first responder units included in the distribution,” said Dr. Michael McGahan, medical director for Emergency Services at St. Francis. “Access to better equipment will help first-responders from a wide area provide better services for their communities.”
The announcement of distributions is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8, at St. Francis. Representatives from the first-responders will attend to provide additional information about their equipment.
St. Francis will distribute $36,835 to first-responders in Hall, Hamilton, Howard and Merrick Counties. The funds include $23,250 raised from this year’s Hullabaluau and $13,585 added by the Foundation. The Foundation provided additional funds to the Hullabaluau proceeds to ensure that every area agency that submitted a request received funding for their needs.
“We are excited to fund all the requests made by our area agencies,” Foundation director Claire Aguilar said. “In our first year, we wanted to reach as many area communities as possible.
The money will purchase communications and on-site rescue equipment, depending on requests made by each responder agency. “Each of the agencies has different gaps that would improve their services,” Aguilar said. “We wanted to fill these gaps so that overall impact of this funding is felt by residents in all four counties.”
The Platte Valley, Mutual Aid District, which includes volunteer EMTs and fire fighters in Alda, Aurora, Cairo, Chapman, Doniphan Grand Island, Phillips, Shelton, St. Libory and Wood River, will receive $21,000 for IT equipment, power supply and mounting equipment, GPS equipment and software and cellular communication equipment.
The equipment will include support for the new Active 911 system that provides a mapping service for the responders to expedite response to emergency calls. The communication equipment also will provide information about locations of hazards and barriers and locations of fire hydrants and rural fire wells. The equipment also will provide material safety data sheets when first responders must work with hazardous materials.
Additional distributions include Hamilton County Ambulance $3,000 for an ambulance chair lift; $2,156 to the Central City Volunteer Fire Department for radio communication units and two lapel microphones; $6,000 to Dannebrog Fire and Rescue Department for grain bin rescue extraction equipment; $3,270 to the Central City Ambulance Department for six new pager radios and additional communications equipment; and $1,309 to the Giltner Rural Fire Department for a metal cutting circular saw.