By MARGARET L. WILLIS

Burns Harbor residents and those in surrounding communities who benefit from the mutual aid the department provides can give something back to the department simply by logging on to the Internet and taking a few minutes to leave positive comments at hamburger helper.com

It may sound strange, Fire Chief Bill Arney said, but Hamburger Helpers’ Hometown Grant program is doling out dollars to help communities all over the country and comments from the public served help projects get their requests.

The Hometown Grant from Hamburger Helper would provide $7,000 to purchase additional water rescue suits for firefighters of the department. The community can help on this one by logging on to the Hamburger Helper website, hamburgerhelper.com and clicking on Find a Project. Then select Indiana, type in Burns Harbor and add comments on the proposal.

The more positive feed back the proposal gets, the more likely it is the grant will be given, Arney said. “We’d appreciate your support.”

Arney also sought and received approval Wednesday from the town council to apply for a variety of grants, one of which might help replace two outdated firefighting trucks.

If the grant is approved from FEMA, Arney said, the town could receive as much as $150,000 toward the purchase of a combined rescue/water pump truck. The town, if the grant is won, would be responsible for five percent of the total, or six to seven thousand of a $150,000 purchase.

Two trucks would be replaced by the combined vehicle, Arney said, one is 23 years old, the other 17.

One other grant Arney is working on the paperwork for would provide funds for five AEDs, (Automatic Emergency Defibrillator) one of which would be installed in the town hall. The town would not have to put up any funds.

Also, Arney is eying a grant from the National Forestry Division to provide new bunker gear to fight wild fires, something Burns Harbor firefighters are frequently called on to do.

Tornado Siren Not Working

Tests of the tornado warning system Wednesday revealed that Burns Harbors is not working, Arney reported. Previous problems with the system turned out to be a faulty motherboard, he said. Quick tests showed the circuit breakers were fine, but the system would not work either manually or when triggered by the Porter County warning system. “We have no idea what it will be,“ Arney said, but efforts to repair it will begin immediately.

In February the Fire Department responded to six vehicle accident scenes, made six assists to EMS and provided mutual aid to Porter twice and to Portage once.

Firefighters put in a total of six duty nights with 14 firefighters putting in 28 hours; training hours totaled 149 hours. With a total of 177 man hours put in through the month.

New Police Officer

Burns Harbor Town Council voted unanimously in favor of hiring a new full-time police officer Wednesday to replace an officer leaving for a higher paying position.

The new officer has worked for the town previously, left the area and is now returning to be closer to family.

The council approved the hiring of Paul McHamey to replace Officer Charlie Mathewson, who is leaving to work for Harbor Belt Railway.

“We tend to be a training ground,” Police Chief Jerry Price told the council.

After some discussion on procedure for future hires, new council members agreed to hire McKamey without interviewing him since he’d been interviewed by the previous council, worked for the town before and passed all testing.

“He’s already gone through the whole process,” Council member Mike Perrine said.

The two new council members, Toni Biancardi and Cliff Fleming plan to meet with McKamey on Friday morning.

“He’s a good guy,” said Price. “He’s experienced and schooled. He’ll be a good addition to the department.”

The police department handled nine traffic accidents in February, none with injuries. Officers made 16 arrests, one a felony; issued 165 traffic citations and 162 written and verbal warnings. Squad cars traveled a total of 9,936 miles.

The building department issued three building permits, and one certificate of occupancy, Building Commissioner Randall Lopez told the council. He made three inspections and issued one violation ticket, with a $500 fine, which has already been collected.

Doug Wentz reported no problems in the Street Department, adding he hopes the snow is done for the season.

Posted 3/6/2008