Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Earlier this month, the Jessamine County Fire Department announced its purchase of a new rescue boat funded by the Jessamine County Fiscal Court.

“It was much needed to be replaced and the Fiscal Court agreed to help us fund the new Stanley 20-foot rescue boat that we just received,” said Jessamine County Fire Chief Danny Eades.

The boat will cost about $100,000 after all of the necessary equipment is purchased.

“This is going to be a phenomenal tool,” said Judge-Executive David West. “Jessamine County has more miles of the Kentucky River than any other county in Kentucky, so it’s only responsible for us to do this, and it was probably overdo, but we’re happy to have it now.”

Every year, there are people that experience emergencies or fatalities on the Kentucky River, and the county needed a properly-functioning vehicle to assist those in distress.

“It was much needed to be replaced, and the Fiscal Court agreed to help us fund the new Stanley 20-foot rescue boat that we just received,” Eades said.

As a county entity, the Jessamine County Fire Department receives funding from the Fiscal Court each year. To fund the new boat, the Fiscal Court allocated an additional $55,000 from American Rescue Plan Act money to fund the boat replacement.

Eades said the department’s previous rescue boat was purchased in the 1980s and is dwarfed by the department’s new boat.

“It offers us more possibilities for when we need to go to the river and make those rescues and searches, and it makes it much safer for the people on the boat, as well,” he said.

The chief also praised the purchase as an excellent example of municipal cooperation.

“It’s a good joint effort by the Fire District and the Fiscal Court coming together to better the community and how we serve the community,” Eades said. “Thanks to the Fiscal Court, the judge and the magistrates, the community has a brand new boat that’s going to serve us for many years, mostly on our river. It’s going to help us serve the community much better than we have been with our old boat.”