Cheney’s Fire Department debuted their new main attack engine last Friday afternoon in the Yoke’s Fresh Market parking lot. To hear Fire Chief Tom Jenkins describe it, the only thing the $800,000 vehicle can’t do is cook dinner.
“It’s like the Swiss Army knife of fire trucks,” Jenkins said of the new engine, which officially replaced the department’s 32-year-old No. 1 engine Saturday morning, Sept. 7.
The roll out at Yoke’s was not only to show off the new engine, but also to thank voters for approving a levy lid lift in 2015 to fund Cheney police and fire services. Some of the initial expenditures coming out of those yearly funds — which are generally in the neighborhood of $300,000 – $400,000-plus — went to police department needs, but city officials made it a point to set aside $100,000 each year towards a new main fire attack engine.