County provides money for Lanark/ St. James Fire Department

The Franklin County Commission has agreed to provide some emergency funding to the Lanark Village/ St. James Fire Department to make sure it can keep operating through the rest of this year. Many of Franklin County’s volunteer fire departments are facing tight budgets but Lanark Village is on the verge of running out of money. They estimate they have about 3500 dollars to make it through the rest of the year – which is probably not enough. The Department provides service to a large area extending from Alligator Point to west of Carrabelle, and it provides first responders services as well as firefighting. Those services are expensive, plus the department needs to do some repairs to its fire truck and the rising cost of gasoline means every call is a hit to the department’s budget. The department will get a relatively large MSBU payment in late January, but doesn’t think it has enough cash on hand to make it that long. On Tuesday the Franklin County Commission agreed to make some money available to the department if it’s needed. The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to provide up to 5000 dollars to the fire department. The county was quick to point out that the money is a loan and not a gift – the county says it will recoup its money from the department’s first MSBU payment in 2010.

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