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 Members of the Wapakoneta Middle School Student Council pose for photo outside the classroom earlier this year. To date, the group has raised nearly $2,300 in which they have donated to various local and area organizations throughout the 2009-2010 school year. Photo provided By KRISTA HAYES
Staff Writer
With the end of the school year nearing, Wapakoneta Middle School Student Council members are hoping to end their term on a positive note.
During the school year, the school government raised nearly $2,300 for various local and area organizations.
“Each year, we try and raise as much money as we can for various clubs and organizations that we vote on and decide to help support at the beginning of the school year,” Wapakoneta Middle School Student Council President Neal Maxson said.
Elected a Student Council representative of his homeroom, Maxson, a seventh-grade student, said this is his second year serving on the council. This year as president, his main responsibility is to set forth an agenda and preside over the group’s monthly meetings which are held the first and third Thursday of each month.
“I joined the Student Council because I was looking for a new activity to do and thought it’d be challenging experience,” Maxson said. “Politics have always been one of the things to stick out in my head and when I grow up, I want to be a lawyer.
“Overall, as president I think I have done a pretty good job,” he said. “Being president is a lot harder than what I thought it would be since I have to make the agendas, run the meetings, and keep the advisers in the loop. I have the whole weight of the council on my shoulders, and at times it can get frustrating, but I would recommend it to all the kids coming to the middle school next year because it’s a fun activity to be involved in.”
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New trailer to be used for foam |
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Tuesday, 07 July 2009 |
By KAREN CAMPBELL
Assistant Managing Editor
The county has come up with a solution to better transport foam when it’s needed to prevent an emergency situation from becoming worse.
Foam, which is used to smother fires like a blanket, as described by Auglaize County Emergency Management Agency Director Troy Anderson, currently is stored in 5-gallon buckets at the Neil Armstrong Airport near New Knoxville.
But, if it is needed in an emergency situation, it can’t immediately be hauled there, as first it must be loaded on a truck for the responding department.
The EMA came up with a solution, by allowing the foam to be stored inside an 18-foot trailer it purchased for a little more than $400.
Anderson said that way the foam is always ready to go and time can be saved by not having to load it first.
The responding fire department simply hooks to the trailer and pulls it where it is needed.
“They can just take it off and go with it,” Anderson said.
The foam bank belonging at the airport is the only supply of the material in the county.
“The county fire chiefs were looking for an easy way to have the county foam bank stored at the airport,” Anderson said. “It’s been kept at the airport in case there is an accident there, but then it’s also available if area fire departments need it.”
As it is used, those fire departments are billed and the material is replaced.
The trailer is able to hold up to 450-gallons of the foam, which the county has used in emergency situations since the late 1980s.
Anderson said foam is used in situations where there are limited water sources, those involving gasoline, and in the possibility of a semitanker or similar vehicle crashing.
“Water isn’t always as effective as foam, which basically lies like soap, sitting on top and smothering, depleting oxygen away from the source,” Anderson said. “There are different types of foam used for different situations, but all of them will be on this trailer ready to go.”
Wapakoneta Fire Chief Kendall Krites said foam has a life expectancy, but it is lengthy, so the foam storage is a good way to keep the material ready when needed.
“We can just hook it up and go,” said St. Marys Fire Chief Ken Cline.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 July 2009 )
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