New Ashford Fire Department Chaplain J.D. Hebert gives an invocation on Saturday morning.
NEW ASHFORD, Mass. — With a blessing from its chaplain and a ceremonial dousing from a fire hose, the New Ashford Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday christened its first new apparatus in two decades.
The company purchased a 2003 HME Central States pumper from the town of Pelham earlier this year.
On Saturday, the department held a brief ceremony during which Chaplain J.D. Hebert blessed both the new engine and the company's turnout gear.
After the apparatus was sprayed with a hose, a handful of New Ashford's bravest helped push it as it was backed into the station on Ingraham Road.
Fire Chief Frank Speth said the new engine has a 1,500 gallon pump and carries 1,000 gallons of water. And it replaces a truck that was facing some costly repairs to keep on the road.
"We had a 1991 Spartan," Speth said. "When we had the pump tested, it needed about $40,000 worth of repairs. Being it's almost 30 years old, I said to the town, 'We put the $40,000 in, but then how many more years can we get out of it?'
"Once you get into the pump situation, you get into, 'This needs to be done, and this needs to be done,' and it could be more than $40,000. So do we want to spend that amount of money to repair that engine or get something that will replace it."
At the same time, the new engine also replaces a 1981 Hahn that the department received in a donation from a town in New Jersey.
The truck that went into service on Saturday morning gives New Ashford two pumpers and a 2,300-gallon tanker that it acquired brand new with a grant in 2021.
It bears both the seal of the New Ashford department and an emblem representing the Quabbin Reservoir with the words "Proudly Served," in a nod to its time in the Quabbin area town of Pelham.
"This is a 2003 [truck] that served their community well," Speth said. "The engine has been regularly serviced, regularly maintained.
"When we went down to pick the engine up, the fire chief down there, Dennis Nazzaro, left a lot of equipment on it — radios, chain saws."
The next apparatus in the department's rotation for replacement is a 2004 Darley that New Ashford purchased off the assembly line with the proceeds of a grant.
But that is a concern for another day.
Saturday was all about celebrating the new engine, showing off the fire station with an open house and offering thanks for the volunteer firefighters and prayers for their continued safety.
Hebert invoked the name of St. Florian, the third-century patron saint of firefighters.
"May our community come together to uplift and empower those who selflessly serve as firefighters," Hebert said. "Let us surround them with love, encouragement and solidarity in their important work."
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Waubeeka Plans Glowball Tournament for Charity
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Golfers will light up the night sky and support a charity that helps underserved communities around the world at Waubeeka Golf Links this week.
Waubeeka will host a Glowball Tournament on Saturday, Aug. 17, from 7 to 10 p.m., to benefit Hope International, a Pennsylvania-based Christian charity dedicated to sharing "the hope of Christ as we provide biblically based training, savings services, and loans that restore dignity and break the cycle of poverty."
Chris Kapiloff, who purchased the golf course earlier this year, has firsthand experience with Hope International, having picked and roasted coffee beans alongside residents of Rwanda on a visit with his family in 2019.
"Hope International is a phenomenal organization," Kapiloff said this week. "My wife and I really like supporting organizations that help children. There are lots of good organizations with lots of good causes, organizations that help people who can't help themselves.
"Hope does an amazing job helping people who can work, who can be creative with just a small break and be amazing. Hope provides banking to people who live in the middle of nowhere, who normally don't have access to banking. It provides training for small businesses."
Founded in 1997, the non-denominational charity fosters economic development in two dozen countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Hope International offers mentoring, training and loans to help people in developing nations launch or expand their businesses.
Golfers will light up the night sky and support a charity that helps underserved communities around the world at Waubeeka Golf Links this week. click for more
Williams College will be back before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday for a development plan review for the school's planned art museum at the Field Park rotary.
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The Milne Library's Building and Grounds Committee on Thursday recommended that the director move ahead with several repairs to the building. click for more
The exhibit, "Edgar Degas: Multi-Media Artist in the Age of Impressionism," coincides with the 150th anniversary of the first impressionist exhibition, which was held in Paris in 1874.
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