Small town Brooklyn, IL thankful for engine
By Jennifer Yos
LANSING, Ill. (October 28, 2020) – At the October 20 Village Board meeting, Lansing Fire Chief Chad Kooyenga thanked the board members for their approval earlier this year of the Lansing Fire Department’s donation of its old engine #29—a 1987 GMC conventional cab pumper—to the Brooklyn Fire & Rescue Company in Brooklyn, IL. Back in June, the Lansing Fire Department had replaced the old pumper with a new custom-designed E-One fire engine. They subsequently donated the GMC pumper to the volunteer fire department in Brooklyn, IL.
“The donation of this engine was epic for them, to say the least,” Chief Kooyenga told the Board. He explained that Brooklyn is a small southern Illinois village located along the Mississippi River just two miles north of East St. Louis with approximately 676 residents, 48% of which are below poverty level. Their volunteer fire department operates on a $1000-a-year budget, and repairs to their equipment and their facilities are often paid for and undertaken by the volunteer members, themselves.
“When we met them in July,” Chief Kooyenga explained, “they could not wait to get the engine back to their department. They had already set up a night of training for those guys as soon as they brought it down there—they were getting down there at like 5:00 in the evening. I lost count of how many times those guys thanked us. They said, ‘It may be old to you, but it’s new to us.’ It was awesome.”
After thanking the board for approving the donation, Chief Kooyenga presented Mayor Eidam with a Brooklyn Fire Department t-shirt, a small token of the Brooklyn Fire & Rescue Company’s appreciation.
Related
- Firefighter Dylan Cunningham honored with funeral procession (October 8, 2020)
- Lansing Fire Engine E29 debuts in traditional ‘push-in ceremony’ (July, 2020)
