Ainsworth Fire receives $10,000 grant for new station

Ainsworth Volunteer Fire Department received a $10,000 grant for a new fire station. The grant is provided through Farm Credit Services of America's (FCSAmerica) Working Here Fund.

The Working Here Fund grant will be used to complete the new Ainsworth fire station. The project is over 90 percent complete and the Working Here Fund grant funds will be used to cover the final stages of the project. The new building will offer a larger, safer fire department for the community that will allow more storage of the emergency equipment and offer training facilities for volunteer firefighters.

'With the addition of this grant we will be able to finish the project without totally exhausting all of our savings,” said Waylon Schultz, Ainsworth fire chief.

In addition to the updated facility, it will be the only building in town with a generator, purchased with the grant funds.

'We understand the importance of keeping our communities safe and appreciate the efforts of the Ainsworth Volunteer Fire Department,” said Justine Stevenson, regional vice president of retail operations at FCSAmerica's Mount Pleasant office.

Ainsworth Volunteer Fire Department is one of 28 organizations to receive an expanded Working Here Fund grant in the second quarter of 2020. FCSAmerica awarded each organization up to $10,000 for a total of $196,300 to support projects focused on agricultural education, hunger and nutrition, young and beginning producers or essential services and rural disaster relief.

'The Ainsworth Volunteer Fire Department is devoted to protecting lives and property by providing professional emergency services for community, it's visitors and our neighbors, with compassion, courtesy and integrity,” according to a statement from the fire department.