Leonardtown, MD- Over the weekend the St. Mary’s County Public Information released a press release regarding The St. Mary’s County Division of Public Works assisting the Bay District Volunteer Fire Department with transportation to move a “surplus” fire engine.
A comment made by a person named Daniel Burroughs, not known if a member of Bay District, stated” we cannot speak for the county’s intentions beyond taking the engine. ” This appears to be where everything started. The post also states that St. Mary’s Airport has taken ownership and will place it back in service after some work. The post mentions Airtec and states the county transported it.
The news release from the county states” The Department of Public Works and Transportation, in collaboration with Bay District Volunteer Fire Department, provided transportation services for the relocation of Fire Engine 92 Friday, June 21, 2019. The engine was transported to the DPW&T facilities where it will undergo maintenance and repair to replace the transmission and the power take-off that controls the water pumps. Upon completion of repair work, Fire Engine 92, having been classified as surplus, will be turned over to a private company for future operational status determination. “
It seems somewhere along the line, people believed that the St. Mary’s County Government was hiring firefighters and staffing the airport fire team. This could be in part to the first press release that stated Hollywood and Bay District were staffing the engine. That was retracted and the above news release sent out.
Commissioner John O’Connor too to Facebook midday on Sunday and released the following statement, “The St Mary’s County Government is ABSOLUTELY NOT hiring Firefighters, nor are we staffing this apparatus at the airport. It is going to a private entity which is located at the airport. We simply provided intermediary transportation and some Maintenance prior to it being transferred.”
The Southern Maryland Chronicle will be reaching out to various sources over the next few days to look into this more and make sure the community understands what has happened and is transpiring.