Washington County has just received 282,000 dollars in fire department funding. The grant is part of an $8 million award from the State Fire Marshal for small county volunteer Fire departments. We spoke with Jeff James, a member of the Dunham Township fire department, EMTs, and secretary of EMS services.

 James said, "We are a small volunteer fire department in a rural area in the southwestern portion of Washington County. We service an area of about 33 square miles. Our annual budget is around $92,000 per year, so to get a grant of $50,000 is a tremendous boost to our department. We've recently purchased a new fire truck. We expect to take delivery of it in the next couple of months, and we plan to use the money from this grant to buy all of the hose nozzles, tools, flashlights, and everything that we will need to outfit our new pumper."

Dunham Township received the maximum grant of 50,000 dollars, and 6 other townships in Washington County also received grants. Watertown also received the maximum grant of 50,000 dollars; Lowell-Adams, Little Hocking, and Reno all received 49,000 dollars. Warren Township received $28,000, and Little Muskingum received $4,700. 

 James also said, "So after we get the proper signatures on the grant award back to the fire marshal's office, we expect that that money will be available for us to make the purchases, shortly thereafter, but certainly by summertime."

A total of 190 departments across 49 Ohio counties received funding. Washington County received the 4th-highest amount across the entire state.