Mentzer brings funding for fire truck back to Mount Clemens

MOUNT CLEMENS — It is said that the gears turn slowly in Lansing, but the results do come, and they have certainly come for Mount Clemens.

After the voters sent her up to the Michigan House of Representatives last November, former Mount Clemens City Commissioner Deniese Mentzer secured state funding to help the Mount Clemens Fire Department buy a new truck. The department’s current Engine 1 is over 20 years old.

“I was able to secure the money in the budget,” Mentzer said. “We were able to complete the paperwork for transparency and disclosures. I talked to city manager and (interim) chief (Gregg) Shipman just the other day. They have put together the specs to order one.”

Those specs point to the city getting a new engine truck, which lacks the ladder capacity of a ladder truck but meets the equipment-carrying needs of Mount Clemens’ single-engine department.

“It is pretty much the bread and butter of the fire service,” Shipman said. “You can use it for just about everything. Here, because we don’t have ambulances, we respond in fire engines. … We have to because we’re a small department. We only have one station; we only have four personnel on duty; we go down to three. We’re out on a lot of calls, so if we’re out and we get called for something, we need to have everything with us.”

The new truck costs about $650,000, with $500,000 coming from the state as part of the budget passed earlier this year. Getting the $500,000 in the budget required persistence on both the legislative side and the city’s side. Mount Clemens officials had to prove the city needed the assistance, while Mentzer had to get fellow legislators and their staff members on board.

“I had to do a lot of begging and I had to have multiple conversations with the appropriations chair and her financial guy, Joe Fedewa. It was funny because anytime he would walk by me, I would stare at him and I would say, ‘Fire truck,’ and then just walk away. I saw him on Mackinac Island for the conference and he was across the street, and I saw him walking. It was late at night, and I just yelled out, ‘Fire truck!’ People started looking around thinking there was a fire truck coming down the street.”

Mount Clemens residents, however, will have to wait some time before their new fire truck races down Crocker Boulevard.

“I would hope that we could get it in three years, but it could be as long as four years,” Shipman said.

While the $500,000 for a new truck was earmarked specifically for Mount Clemens, it will not be the only thing the Mount Clemens Fire Department gets from the state budget. An appropriation of $15 million has been set aside for firefighter gear, providing every current Michigan full-time firefighter with an additional set of turnout equipment.

“I asked repeatedly to include (the truck) in the budget, and I was lucky enough that they listened to me and agreed to, and it was able to get passed both the House and the Senate and remain in the budget for the governor to sign,” Mentzer said. “As far as I’m concerned, that truck is signed, sealed and delivered as soon as the manufacturer can get it made.”