For approximately 60 years, Friendswood has been served by a volunteer firefighting force and ambulance service. For many of those years, residents have had the opportunity to add a donation to their every-other-month City utility bill. As the cost of new fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency equipment has gone up, so has the amount of the suggested donation; currently $6 every other month. Friendswood is a generous community. In the most recent fiscal year, through the $6 donation, they gave $200,000.

During their November 2018 meeting, Council members unanimously approved the purchase of a new $579,153 fire truck, funded through the $6 donations. It’s part of an ongoing replacement schedule. “This new engine replaces a 1997 fire truck that has served the Friendswood Volunteer Fire Department well, but it has reached the end of its useful life,” said FVFD Fire Chief Stan Kozlowski. “The new one is part of our 15-year equipment replacement plan.”

The $6 donations provide partial support for FVFD firefighting and EMS to purchase new fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency equipment. It does not fund EMS operations. In fact, the new EMS billing, coming in mid-January, offsets only part of the operational cost of the EMS services provided by FVFD.

“Although some of the future expenses of EMS services will be recovered through a new billing system, we need everyone to continue to make their $6 donation. That buys the FVFD’s equipment so our firefighters and paramedics have the right tools when they respond to a resident’s emergency call,” said Mayor Mike Foreman.”

Friendswood’s generosity toward helping keep on track with the replacement of outdated firefighting and ambulance equipment needs to continue. Lives depend on it.