Council approves fire truck donation to wrong department

When the Havre City Council approved donating a fire truck that is no longer used to the Kremlin Rural Fire District, it was voting on the wrong motion.

Havre Fire Chief Mel Paulson said Tuesday afternoon that the wrong district was listed in the resolution - the Rudyard Volunteer Fire Department was the entity that had accepted the donation.

"It's all on me," Paulson said. "... I think I had my wires crossed."

Paulson said a resolution proposing donating the truck to the Rudyard department will be on the next City Council agenda. It's next meeting is May 6.

Paulson said that after the Havre Fire Department acquired its new fire engine last fall, the 1973 Howe fire engine was sitting unused, and he wanted some department to be able to use it. He said he talked to several fire departments, including at Dodson, Kremlin and Rudyard, all by telephone.

When he was told by a member of the Rudyard Volunteer Fire Department their department would take the engine, Paulson said, it stuck in his mind that that volunteer was with the Kremlin department.

He said he had contacted all of the fire chiefs, and no one seemed upset about the mixup.

"They all thought it was funny," he said.