The Morongo Valley Community Services District breathed a sigh of relief earlier this year when it finally got a new fire engine to replace its engine that was more than 20 years old. Reporter Mike Lipsitz explains how the small community managed to afford a new fire engine…
So vulnerable was this main engine of the Morongo Valley Fire Department that in a service review and audit, the Local Agency Formation Commission cautioned that its sudden loss could spell the end for the CSD. Even before the warning, firefighter Daniel Kitt was already working on a grant application; his first. The $420,000 federal grant Kitt had been working on was enough to purchase a new fire engine. The roughly half million dollar piece of equipment represents the culmination of more than two years of community-wide fundraising. The new engine replaces the fire department’s aging main engine which had become a financial drain on the Community Services District.
