Allendale November 9, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 9 Chief and firefighter extolled for work on grant obtain funding for a six-bay firehouse. “Bob was involved in getting a grant for Vernon Township,” Mayor Barra noted optimistically. The mayor added that he would urge Representative Scott Garrett, both U.S. senators, and school officials to endorse the grant bid. The Allendale bid, Chief Baez said, consists of multiple elements, including complete new turnout gear, including durable water-proof hats, coats, and boots, for the volunteer department’s 40 firefighters, new breathing apparatus, and the technology to make the breathing apparatus self-sustaining and to save the department money in the long run. Chief Baez explained that, at present, the Allendale Fire Department has to send the rescue truck to Waldwick to have the air bottles refilled, which keeps the Allendale rescue truck out of the emergency loop. When the rescue truck returns to Allendale, the air is transferred to the Allendale firefighters’ bottles, which is also a time-con- Robert Winter and Chief David Vaez suming project. The air bottles, Baez added, are coming to the end of their 15-year useful lives, and new bottles are important to the department’s internal safety and efficiency. The terms of the grant call for the federal government to pay 95 percent of the cost, while Allendale foots the bill for five percent, a sum that Baez meticulously calculated at $16,196. “If you can get the rest of the grant, I’ll write you a check for the $16,000 -- on Mayor Barra’s checking account,” Councilwoman Elizabeth White joked. The two firefighters told the council they should know whether the grant bid had been accepted by January or February of 2012, and added that not much time had gone to waste on preparing the paperwork. The volunteer grant writers were on stand-by all through Hurricane Irene and had used their stand-by time to work on the application. by John Koster Allendale Mayor Vince Barra and members of the borough council praised Fire Chief David Baez and firefighter Robert Winter for drafting a $322,920 grand bid to be forwarded to the federal government for renovation and improvement of the Allendale Fire Department’s equipment. “These grant applications are incredibly onerous, but we know what you went through and we really appreciate it,” Mayor Barra told Baez and Winter, who, with firefighter Rick Shinnick, did a lot of the voluminous paperwork. The bid to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is competitive, but Winter comes highly recommended. Some years ago, in the early 1990s when he was living in Vernon Township, he wrote an even larger bid for the Vernon Volunteer Fire Department and was able to Making history Students at Allendale’s Hillside School, sponsored by the Allendale PTO, recently participated in the annual Read for the Record Day. Across the United States, teachers and children read ‘Llama, Llama, Red Pajama’ by Ann Dewdney to break the previous year’s record. Over 2 million readers participated this year.