Bradshaw-Chambers County library hosts family night
Published 4:02 pm Tuesday, June 4, 2019
VALLEY — Bradshaw-Chambers County Library hosted Family Night on Monday. There were long lines at Big Mama’s ice cream truck and Jerome Bailey’s food truck. Kids in attendance got free ice cream treats from Big Mama and hot dogs, chicken fingers and fries from the food truck.
The many children on hand for Family Night had the thrill of sitting behind the wheel of such vehicles as a WOW! bucket truck, a new Valley Police Department Ford Interceptor, a mobile unit from the Chambers County EMA, fire engine No. 3 and an ambulance from the East Alabama Fire Department, and a Rural King 24 tractor owned by Kelly Meacham.
WOW! representative Darryl Mezick said that the local office has up to 10 bucket trucks in service at any one point in time.
“They allow us to do all kinds of installation and repair work,” he said.
Valley Police Officer Lorenzo Harris talked to kids and their parents about the Ford Interceptor. The all-wheel drive vehicle is made especially for police departments.
Children loved being in the seat of Meacham’s RK 24.
“I stay busy with it,” Meacham said. “People are always asking me to do something for them.”
Chambers County EMA Director Jessica Yeager talked about the EMA’s mobile support unit. It covers not just Chambers County but a large swath of east-central Alabama as well.
“It’s housed here in Chambers County but serves a wide area,” she said. “We took it to Jasper following the tornado outbreak of 2011 to help get their system up and running. In 2015, we were also in Selma for the 50th anniversary (of Bloody Sunday).”
The mobile unit has the capability of patching different frequencies together, something very useful in getting different departments to communicate.
If a worst-case scenario ever happened in Chambers County and the EMA building had to be evacuated, the mobile unit would allow the local EMA to remain in service.
The East Alabama Fire Department had good representation on Family Night. Firefighters Austin Hodge, Bryant Story and Chris Payne talked to the public about their equipment. Lt. Logan Daniel, Blake Key and Tellie Sanders talked about what EMS personnel do while showing everyone the interior of an ambulance.
“We have two ambulances right now,” Lt. Daniel said. “Two more are on order. We should have a brand new one next month and should have four ambulances altogether in two years.”
East Alabama’s new fire station in Fairfax could play a key role in the department having an improved ISO rating come its next review. That would be good news for homeowners in Valley as it would help them save on their fire insurance premiums.
