ST. PETER - First District Congressman Tim Walz chose the St. Peter Fire Station to drum up support for HR 6461, the Supporting America's Volunteer Emergency Services Act of 2008, which promises reimbursement to volunteer fire departments like St. Peter's for at least part of their fuel costs.
Walz' supporting cast of volunteer fire chiefs included Paul Macho of the New Ulm Volunteer Fire Department; Windy Block of the St. Peter Fire Department; Gary Conrath of the Waseca Fire Department, and Tom Phillips, retired fire chief, Henderson Fire Department.
"In rural areas like Nicollet, Brown and Waseca Counties, emergency response is very fuel-intensive and expensive. We cannot continue to expect local firefighters to absorb the costs of increasing gas and diesel," Walz said.
"Our first responders are better off spending their time on training and emergency preparedness than on additional fundraising to cover skyrocketing the cost of fuel. That's why I support the SAVES Act which helps volunteer fire companies pay for the fuel to run their trucks."
To a man, the fire chiefs agreed that when costs increase in a certain area like fuel has, there's only one place in which those costs can be covered, and that is in taking money from the training budget.
"We have no choice but to pull it from somewhere else in the budget," Macho said, who later said his department already has gone over its fuel budget for this year. He expects to be asking for more than twice the amount of this year's budget for 2009.
"The additional funding from this bill will help offset the rising costs of petroleum which is something we have no control over. Fuel is something we can't cut corners on. We must respond to emergencies despite the drastic increases in price," said Block.
The SAVES Act would reimburse volunteer fire departments for 75 percent of the difference between what they pay for fuel today and the average price of fuel during 2007. However, Walz noted, in answer to a question, that it hasn't been determined as to exactly how much money will be made available to fund the act.
That's why it's important that Congress address passage of HR 6709, the National Conservation, Environment, and Energy Independence Act, a comprehensive energy bill put forward by Walz and members of the House Bipartisan Energy Working Group, into law, Walz said.
"The biggest issue is that it's the energy bill that has to solve the [volunteer fire departments' fuel] issue."
Ron Larsen can be reached at rlarsen@nujournal.com
