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By Zach Compton

Contributing Writer

 

The Town of Cumberland Gap has been awarded a Community Development Block Grant for $282,750.00 for the purchase of a new fire truck for the Cumberland Gap Volunteer Fire Department.

Mayor Neal Pucciarelli said he and Fire Chief Jordan Jones hope to have the truck in town within a month or so, though it could take longer depending on availability.

“We want to spend that money right away because every day you don’t spend it the cost of everything goes up,” Pucciarelli said.

The town and the fire department have been working for nearly a year to raise funds for a new truck. They started a GoFundMe that raised over $12,000 for matching funds with Dr. Ronald Dubin contributing over $6,000.

The Cumberland Gap Volunteer Fire Department is made up of approximately 25 volunteers, all of whom are LMU college students, and is the only VFD in the State of Tennessee that can make this claim. The firefighter program teaches invaluable lifesaving skills that participants can take with them to the communities across Tennessee and the country in which they settle after completing their studies at LMU.

The grant that has been approved will allow the purchase of a combination pumper and fire truck.

“Our last truck that we were able to purchase goes back to the 1980s and it was constantly needing repair,” Pucciarelli said. “This is going to meet our needs and it’s going to be awesome. it will boost our insurance rating and that will make our homeowners insurance a little bit less expensive. It gives us a new vehicle to train our volunteer firefighters on.”