Assistant Chief Diana Watson

Firefighters are ready to go and there’s a job outside the firehouse for them. And Assistant chief of Administration and EMS Diana Watson is excited about a new volunteer project being planned by firefighters and EMTs.

“As we look around Lehigh, there are hundreds of homes with grass and brush grown up all around them. Many of them are foreclosed homes that have not yet made it through the system,” she said.

“While talking to our firefighters since I have been on duty here, I have discovered that a lot of them would like to volunteer and go out and cut down the grass at these homes,” she said.

“Not only does it give the community a positive feeling about our dedicated firefighters, but it will be good for the community because in a couple of months during the dry season, there will be that danger of fires in Lehigh,” Watson said.

“Our firefighters already mow the lawns of the different fire houses in Lehigh and why not do as many of the yards as they can to cut down tall dry grass and brush that would burn like straw if a cigarette should be tossed into a yard,” she said.

But before the mowing begins, Watson wants to get a list from the Lee County Clerk of Court of the foreclosures in Lehigh, the vacated homes where nobody has cut the grass for months. She expects to have such a list this week.

“We all see these abandoned houses as we drive around Lehigh,” Watson said.

Homes that have not been taken over by the banks yet are the main target of the volunteer program. By clearing up the yards, it makes the neighborhoods more attractive, too.”

She has checked the labor laws to see if firefighters can do things like this while on duty and the response, she says, is yes.

“Our men and women would be out at a site with an engine and if a call should come in, they would quit the mowing immediately, jump on the fire apparatus and report to a fire,” Watson said.

She first expressed the idea of firefighters mowing lawns at abandoned houses at a recent Kiwanis Club breakfast and before the week was over, several people were talking about and at least one TV station has come to Lehigh to interview Watson.

She said the department has the mowers and they have the manpower to do the work.

“It may keep some fires from starting down the road,” she said. “That is what we all want, a fire-free brush season. When the rainy season stops, things get very dry, and the grass at abandoned homes is like brush on empty lots.”

Watson said she didn’t think the cost of gasoline would be a problem. But she is looking at where the money would come from to buy the gasoline to run the mowers.

“If it takes one gallon of gasoline to cut one yard, and that can keep a fire from starting, then I think it is worth it. The people here at the fire department are excited and are ready to begin,” she said.

Watson joined the fire department a few months back and it is her duty to oversee the training of the EMS, among other administrative duties.

“The firefighters are the ones behind this. They are the ones who want to do something to help the community. They all know the department has been through some rough times during the economic recession.

Some 17 firefighters lost their jobs in August of 2009 because there was no money to pay them without having to dip into reserves, which Chief Don Adams said were needed to keep the fire department in operation.

The department applied for a federal SAFER grant and finally this past spring, the grant was awarded to the Lehigh Fire Dept. It had to be used to hire back any and all of the firefighters who were laid off.

That is what the money was used for, the chief said, except for the few firefighters who had moved away or had other jobs.

During recent budget negotiations, firefighters through their union reps offered to take a small reduction in pay to help the department get through rough economic times.

There is an election coming up this fall to elect three new members to the board who will have to spend much time helping to keep the fire department in operation despite those who say if the economy doesn’t turn around, the fire department could become insolvent.

Chief Adams says after the SAFER grant runs out, there has to be enough income from ad valorem taxes and fees from ambulance transport to pay the bills. He hopes the economy will turn around, but if it doesn’t, he says he would apply again for another SAFER grant. Homes that have lost their value are not providing the same tax revenue as they were a few years ago. Last month, the current fire board voted to keep the millage rate the same as it has been for a few years, three mils. But that does not bring in the money in did when homes were worth double the amount they are worth now.

“I am proud of the firefighters for what they want to do in mowing the overgrown grass and weeds in and around Lehigh. Their work will make a big difference in the appearance of Lehigh and will be a help, hopefully, to prevent some fires.

Watson said firefighters work around the stations they are assigned to and when they are not required on a call, doing something positively like mowing overgrown grass seems to be a good thing to do, she said.

Watson said she wants to get in touch with the Lehigh Initiative Program which was the old Weed & Seed group.

“Maybe we can work together with them, all of us trying to help Lehigh to become a more attractive community and the mowing has a probability of slowing down fires,” she said.