“Just about on a weekly basis, someone is coming through and bringing in food for our police officers and firefighters,” said Lino Lakes director of public safety, John Swenson. And often times, the donations are more than substantial. Including donations used to help pay for the police department’s K-9s.
Recently, the department received a very large donation from a very grateful resident.
“I think 30,000 [dollars] was the largest, prior to this donation,” said Swenson. “So this certainly was very large, and by a lot.”
A local family donated $100,000 to the city’s fire division.
“We have a family that resides here in Lino Lakes who unfortunately were benefactors of some public safety services that were life changing for them. And they came forward, and althougth they wanted to be anonyomous, they wanted to support the public safety department and our mission,” said Swenson.
Chief Swenson plans on using the money to buy the fire department a new wildland fire suppression utility vehicle. It will replace an aging pickup that is currently used in fighting grass fires. It will come with tracks to help when the ground is soft, and it will be outfitted with a tank, pump, emergency lights, and come with a trailer that can easily tow it.
Just last spring, the department battled a grass fire along I-35W that burned more than 100 acres of land. In times like this, this utility vehicle will be able to get firefighters further off the road and into the fire.
“This will greatly enhance our abilty to get out into those remote areas more effectively,” said Swenson.
All thanks to the suprising generousity of a community member.
“Certainly when they came through with what they were thinking, it was extremely suprising,” said Swenson.
