The City of Ainsworth’s Fire Department received a quarter-of-a-million dollars through a grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation for a new fire truck.

The department’s lead truck is 20 years old and at the end of its life cycle. The WCRF grant will allow the department to purchase a new truck rather than a used one, according to Fire Chief Waylon Schultz, “It’s huge, it’s everything. Just to ensure that we know we have good working equipment every time we respond to a call to help protect everybody, not just for Ainsworth, but for the surrounding communities as well and all of Washington County.”

The grant was awarded for $250,000, $136,000 short of the department’s original request, and the total project will cost around $587,000. The department has already begun fundraising to make up the difference with a breakfast fundraiser in March.