Our Fire Department has a new powerful generator that will run the station for days if needed. Puget Sound Energy Foundation awarded a $20,000 grant to pay for the purchase and installation. And LICA was able to help by applying for the grant as a non-profit organization.

Chief McLane checks on his future volunteers

Chief Duncan McLane has already put the generator to the test with great results. “We are more self-reliant having the ability to run all our equipment in an outage. It is one less thing to monitor and deal with during an outage, freeing up resources to respond the needs of the community.”

This was one of the reasons Mary Ross came to be president of Lummi Island Community Association. “I remembered how LICA has always stepped up when a community need is perceived. I like being part of an organization that works quietly in the background but really gets lots of things accomplished in our community.”

PSE Foundation provides support for safety and emergency preparedness. The need for backup power was keenly felt during the snowstorm of February 2014. Lynn Murphy, PSE Community Services Manager, worked with with Chief McLane after the storms and outages to steer the community towards the PSE Foundation Grant. The fire department will use response times from that storm as a benchmark in the future.

The generator was delivered and installed on March 10, and about a week later PSE showed up with the big check. There was such a big turn out, including a field trip from Beach School, that the generator is not actually visible in the group photo. As usual, our fire department is all over it.

Together we did it. Thank you PSE Foundation, Lummi Island Fire Department, and LICA!