Jeanne Sager | Democrat THIS 1996 SUBURBAN will become the "new" car for Roscoe Fire Chief Steve Chesney.

Roscoe FD gets new car – and taxpayers pay nothing

By Jeanne Sager
ROSCOE — There’s a new car on the roads of Roscoe – but even with the name of the hamlet’s fire department emblazoned across its windows, it isn’t costing taxpayers a cent.
For the second time in less than six months, the Roscoe-Rockland Fire District has taken receipt of a fire vehicle from the Terry Farrell Foundation, a Long Island-based non-profit that connects fire departments in need with fire departments with excess equipment.
Last year it was a ladder truck, which department volunteers have been actively training on to become certified.
This winter, it’s a personnel car - a 1996 red Ford Suburban which will be used by the chief to respond to calls within the fire and protection districts plus mutual aid calls and to transport volunteer firemen onto Route 17.
More than a third of the Roscoe-Rockland department’s calls are on the future interstate, and as the state phases out the use of personal vehicles by volunteers on the highway, the department has been scrambling for an answer.
Thanks to Fire Chief Steve Chesney and wife Lisa, they got one.
Lisa wrote a letter to the Terry Farrell Foundation explaining the hamlet’s predicament.
“The passion Brian Farrell (brother of Terry Farrell) exhibited from the reviewing of our first application form to picking up of the Suburban was truly admirable," Lisa said. "Brian is a true hero to the firefighters."
"Receiving donations like these has changed the way Roscoe-Rockland volunteer firefighters respond to calls,” Steve added. “Now that we are able to utilize the Suburban as a transport vehicle for our firefighters, this increases the safety of our firefighters.
“We could never have afforded to purchase equipment like this,” he continued. “We are grateful to have found an organization such as the Terry Farrell Foundation. Their continued support to the volunteer services is vital and unsurpassed."
To help the Foundation, Roscoe-Rockland is now acting as a drop-off spot for donations made to area fire departments.
That includes Cooks Falls-Horton. Just over the line in Delaware County, the department got its own personnel car in late 2008, which it is using in the same manner as Roscoe-Rockland.
Chief Matt Murphy says at least eighty percent of his department’s calls take them onto Route 17, and this has taken a huge burden off his shoulders – and that of taxpayers.