Chief Don Murdoch
The Woodgate Volunteer Fire Department annual meeting was held in December and the board of directors was voted in for the 2012 year.
Asst. Chief Cornell
Elected to the board were Don Murdoch, President; William Rockhill, Vice President; Tony Sege, Chief; Michael Przybyla, Treasurer; and Chris Burnett- Wolle, Secretary. Scott Cornell is the Assistant Chief.
Jack Adams and Maureen Weber were also voted status as lifetime members. Continue reading
After ten years of planning, construction of the new Otter Lake Fire Department is almost complete.
Former Woodgate resident Kevin Jablonski of Beebe Construction Services installs the sign on the new Otter Lake Fire Department firehose on Route 28
“It’s been a great project that we’ve been working on for years, but it never seemed real—never like it was going to actually happen. When I saw the sign going up it finally sunk in that this building will be ours,” said Otter Lake Fire Department Secretary Tom Abrial.
In 2009, Otter Lake received funding from the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) from a Firefighters Station Construction Grant.
Of the 6,025 national applicants, Otter Lake Fire Department was one of only 121 departments to receive funding.
This was due to a joint effort between the fire department, CAP-21 and former CAP-21 grant writer, Julie Benzo. Continue reading
It’s been a busy year for area firefighters with 12 structural fires fought in Old Forge, Eagle Bay, and Inlet alone since the first of the year, according to Jason Pallotta, assistant fire chief of the Inlet Fire Department.
“People who have been in the department for 30 years don’t recall that many fires in one year. Fortunately, nobody has gotten hurt or been trapped—which is a good thing—but we’ve been on calls where smoke detectors are not present or not working in the house,” Pallotta said.
He said he wished he had a dollar for every time he walked into a house and saw wires hanging out of the ceiling where the smoke detectors were taken out because they needed new batteries and were not replaced. Continue reading
Ann Capron of Old Forge was the winner of a 2011 GMC pickup truck, the grand prize in the Otter Lake Fire Co. Inc.’s annual fundraising raffle. The raffle was conducted at the fire station on Sunday, September 4.
Second prize winner of $200 was Norb Bankert of Remsen; and third prize winner of $100 was Cornelius Cheerschap of West Milford, NJ and Otter Lake.
“On behalf of the Otter Lake Fire Company and Auxiliary, I would like to thank the many businesses and individuals for their continued support of our annual fundraiser,” said Fire Chief Daniel Abrial.
From left are Eagle bay Fire Chief Shane Beach, Dave Peterson, and Department President Pete Widish.
Eagle Bay Volunteer Hose Co. personnel would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Dave Peterson for their recent donation to the fire department.
On New Year’s Eve, Dave and his wife were unfortunate to have suffered a structure fire at their residence in Eagle Bay.
Even with a quick response and an all-out effort by Eagle Bay and surrounding departments, they lost everything in the fire.
Nevertheless, to show their appreciation for the firefighter’s efforts, they were generous enough to make a $10,000 donation to the Eagle Bay Fire Dept.
This donation has been put into the Eagle Bay Fire Boat Fund, and hopefully by the spring of 2012 there will be a fire boat on the Fulton Chain to help serve all of the surrounding communities.
Members of the Old Forge Volunteer Fire Depart-ment marched in the parade to kick-off the annual Constableville Fire Department Field Days on Friday, August 6.
Seven other area fire companies also marched in the parade, and despite the rainy conditions, the Old Forge Department came home with several trophies.
The OFVFD won awards for Most Men in Line and for Traveling the Longest Distance.
They also took a first place trophy in the category of Best Company without Music.
Crowd at Auction
The event, which is the organization’s biggest annual fundraising effort, raised over $13,000.
A large crowd of auction-goers gathered under and around a tent covering at Raquette Lake's Village Green
Edelstein said this year’s event started an hour earlier than past years, but despite the effort to wrap things up a littler earlier than usual, Auctioneer George Tucker’s gavel went down on the last item at 1 a.m. on Sunday.