Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By TOM LAVENTURE
Ironwood — Area law enforcement and fire departments were awarded grants to assist with equipment purchases and training from Enbridge.
This first round of the biannual grant has resulted in $7,500 awards to the Michigan State Police, the Wakefield Fire Department, the Iron County Sheriff’s Department and Iron County Emergency Management and 911, according to Brian Trekas, the pipeline supervisor for Enbridge at the Ironwood office. Ambulance services and law enforcement organizations are also welcome to apply.
“It all gets put to good use because whether we have an incident with our system or a traffic accident, we’re going to be calling all of them — the state police, the sheriff’s department and the fire department,” Trekas said. “It helps support us but hopefully for most of the time it’s not for us, it’s for the community.”
Enbridge, a multinational energy transportation company based in Calgary, with offices in Duluth, is currently working on its Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation Project that pipes petroleum and liquid natural gas from Superior, Wisconsin through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Most area fire departments and search and rescue teams are all volunteer units, he said. The law enforcement units are usually struggling with budgets as well, he said.
The funds can be used for equipment and training or anything related to the work and mission of the units, he said. A set of turnout gear for one firefighter can exceed $1,000. A small volunteer department can do a lot with $7,500, he said.
“This is just to support our emergency responders because we know that a lot of times they are all really tight on funds,” Trekas said.
F/Lt. Donald Horn, the Wakefield Post commander for the Michigan State Police, said the $7,500 grant will provide portable scene lighting to illuminate crime and accident scenes at night along with improved flashlights and headlamps for troopers in the field. It’s needed equipment, but not the variety that is considered essential to prioritize with the regular budget.
“The grant that we are getting from Enbridge is going to be able to fill that need for us,” Horn said. “Enbridge has been a great partner with first responders in the area and it’s awesome that they are able to do that for us and with other law enforcement agencies as well.”
Until this year, Enbridge had been awarding $1,000 to $1,500 grants to several departments in every round of funding, Trekas said. This year the guidelines were adjusted to have Enbridge invite a few departments to apply and present them with larger awards that will go further to assist.
“The amount is larger now but it may be a few years between each award,” he said.
Enbridge’s Safe Community program has invested more than $5.7 million in North American emergency responder organizations, including police and sheriff departments, firefighters and emergency medical services.
