Bill Text: VA SJR358 | 2017 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Commending Amherst Fire Department.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2017-02-17 - Bill text as passed Senate and House (SJ358ER) [SJR358 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2017-SJR358-Enrolled.html
WHEREAS, the Amherst Fire Department is celebrating a century of outstanding volunteer service to the Amherst community in 2017; and
WHEREAS, volunteer fire service began in Amherst County in 1917, after a devastating fire swept through the Amherst livery stable, Meeks Building, and the Hill Hardware Lumberyard; and
WHEREAS, today, the Amherst Fire Department has 29 volunteer members and operates one station that houses two fire engines, an engine/tanker, a brush truck, a utility vehicle, and Amherst County's aerial ladder truck; and
WHEREAS, with a response area of 175 square miles, the mission of the Amherst Fire Department is to provide fire prevention and protection services to the residents of Amherst County in a safe and professional manner; and
WHEREAS, in 2016, the Amherst Fire Department responded to 318 incidents, totaling more than 2,500 personnel hours, and members logged more than 1,200 training hours; members of the department aided in battling national forest wildfires in the fall of 2016; and
WHEREAS, the Amherst Fire Department, the oldest of three departments serving Amherst County and the Town of Amherst, will mark the department's centennial at a celebration in August 2017; and
WHEREAS, the Amherst Fire Department would not continue to exist today without the dedicated men and women who give their time to protect their community, and their supportive families who are understanding of the missed dinners, housework, and family time; and
WHEREAS, the men and women volunteers who make up the Amherst Fire Department consider themselves to be ambassadors of goodwill; they are willing to drop everything to answer a call, and they act without fear and without hesitation; and
WHEREAS, the current members of the Amherst Fire Department are forever grateful for all of the men and women who went before them and worked diligently to create, develop, and establish the department's current standards of excellence; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend the Amherst Volunteer Fire Department on celebrating 100 years of outstanding volunteer service to the Amherst community in 2017; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Tom Martin, chief of the Amherst Volunteer Fire Department, as an expression of the General Assembly's admiration for the department's proud history and for the volunteer members' commitment and dedication to the safety of their fellow citizens.
