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Huntland greatly needs a large fire truck, and the County Commission helped the city move another step toward getting it on March 20 by unanimously approving to apply for a Community Development Block Grant.

The grant is estimated to be $468,000 with the federal government paying $400,000 and the county paying the remaining $68,000.

Huntland called on the Franklin County government to apply for the grant because it was awarded another Community Development Block Grant in 2017 that has gone toward a $6.7 million city sewer project.

Huntland Mayor Dolton Steele said the city is ineligible to apply for the fire-truck grant because it already has an ongoing CDBG grant it is paying back to fund the sewer project.

However, he said recently that the county could apply for a CDBG grant which would allow the fire-truck purchasing effort to proceed.

Pam Kreidenweis, Franklin County grant manager, said the grant, if approved, would be managed through the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development which distributes federal CDBG appropriations at the local level.

She said Huntland has needed the pumper/tanker truck and had applied for a grant last year but didn’t receive one.

Kreidenweis said a key reason that grant was not approved is because ECD bases its appropriations on community needs, and the public needed to let the agency know how important the project is.

Franklin County Fire Chief Chuck Stines said Huntland’s pumper/tanker truck’s use would serve way beyond the Huntland corporate limits.

He explained that Huntland’s largest fire truck holds a maximum of 2,700 gallons of water. He added that a pumper/tanker truck has double that capacity, and the more, the better because an average residential fire can take between 20,000 and 40,000 gallons to extinguish.

Stines said the truck would serve other areas through mutual-aid agreements involving the immediate area’s 15 fire departments.

Steele said that two-thirds of the Huntland Volunteer Fire Department’s calls are to property outside the corporate limits which makes the fire truck’s value to Franklin County all the more significant. He added that the department has three fire trucks that are aging and have nowhere near the water-hauling capacity of a large pumper/tanker.

Stines said Huntland has Huntland School, Thompson Appalachian Hardwoods and the Franklin Farmers Co-op, which has large amounts of fertilizer on hand, as major facilities and property that need fire protection. He added the larger pumper/tanker would go a long way in ensuring better fire protection.

Stines said an improved fire response ensures better property protection which, in turn, can lead to a better rating from the Insurance Services Office, a subsidiary of the statistics firm Verisk Analytics which insurance agencies use to asses coverage rates. He added that an improved ISO rating can spell lower insurance costs for residents.

Steele said the grant amount being requested totals $468,000 in an 83-17 percent funding package with the federal government paying the greater share. However, he said the final amount won’t be determined until bids are received, and the cost could be slightly more than the $468,000.