Fire Explorer Program Open To Local Youth

By REBECCA HAZEN
News Editor

City of Trenton Board of Commissioners heard about, and encouraged local young people to join the Fire Explorers program, during the Feb. 8 meeting.

Fire and Utility Commissioner Lucretia Houts explained the Fire Explorers Program, held by the Trenton-Dade Fire and EMS departments.

The program is on Thursday nights from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Trenton Fire Department for ages 14-20. It allows the kids to get an inside look at what firefighters do on the job.

Houts said that if anyone had kids that were interested to call herself, City Clerk Russanna Jenkins, or Jerry Henegar.

“They had about ten kids last week,” Houts said.

“They are telling their friends. We are hoping to get more to show up. It’s a good program,” Cody Doyle, with Dade County EMS, said.

Doyle noted that there are competitions held in Gatlinburg, Tenn., but they are not being held this year due to COVID-19.

“I think the fire department is really excited about it, seeing the young folks there,” Mayor Alex Case said. “This is a good thing.

Case continued, “People like Cody and myself and all the other guys, we take the time out of our times to do this for our city and county. We do it because we love our citizens.”

The Fire Explorer program has a Facebook page, which can be found under Trenton-Dade Explorers.

William Back, Executive Director of the Industrial Development Authority spoke to the commissioners about bringing in more high paying jobs to the city and county.

“When I started about two and a half years ago, our biggest challenge was wages,” Back said. “What’s happened over the past few years, we have had about a 30 percent increase in wages overall in Trenton. I think that’s a good thing.”

Back noted that the median wage in Trenton is about $13-$15.

“We’d like to see that increase by at least a couple of dollars. We would like to keep people here, and we also want them to earn a wage where they can afford to buy a home and invest in their own lives,” Back said.

According to Back, a company could possibly be coming to Trenton, which would pay more than the average wage.

“Our concern was an environmental one though,” Back said.

The company, which was unnamed, announced early on that they would be putting a lot of things in the sewer if they were to move to Dade County.

“We don’t know if the environmental issue will keep them from coming to Trenton. We are hoping they will invest in a pretreatment program,” Back said.

Jennifer Blair with Tree City USA reported that they are planning for spring planting. She noted that Georgia Arbor Day is Feb. 19, and they intend on planting a sapling somewhere in the city.

Kathleen Reed with Alliance for Dade reported that the Alliance is going to start Alliance Live, which is where they will interview businesses.

“We will find out who they are, what they do, and get the word out,” Reed said.

Police Commissioner Kirk Forshee reported the Trenton Police Department answered 343 calls during the month of January, conducted 1,768 business checks, responded to one animal complaint, three domestic calls, five trespassing calls, 28 suspicious activity calls and worked nine accidents. There were 208 traffic stops resulting in 97 citations issued in the city. Collected fines for January were $17,833.10.

Parks and Animal Control Commissioner Terry Powell reported that the community center continues to be closed due to COVID-19. There were five animal control complaints.

Houts reported there were 33 underground locates, seven emergency locates, 27 sewer calls and one man hole repair.

There were five electrical inspections, two new construction inspections, four remodel inspections and three additions.

The fire department had a total of 78 calls. There were five fire related calls, five accidents, four medical calls, and seven standbys.

Street Commissioner Monda Wooten was absent from the meeting.

Case reported that the general fund balance for the end of January is $ 486,643.51. Revenue income is 85,669.83. Total expenses for the month were $193,088.23.

The Commissioners also approved the purchase of a computer monitor and Microsoft Office license for $1,600 for the street department, to be purchased with SPLOST funds.

During the time for citizen participation, Doyle asked about the possibility of keeping the bathrooms open year round at the park, noting that a lot of families still use the park on nicer days in the winter.

Powell replied that the bathrooms are closed in the winter because the pipes freeze, but he would look into the possibility of a renovation.

The next city commission meeting will be March 8.