Warwick is first community in Rhode Island to take advantage of grant program
Mayor Scott Avedisian, Frank Stevenson, supervising air quality specialist in the Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Air Resources, and Fire Department officials unveiled the city’s new rescue at a press conference yesterday at 2 p.m. at fire headquarters, 111 Veterans Memorial Drive, Apponaug.
DEM will provide $43,692 toward the purchase of the 2009 GMC 4500 ambulance, which uses less fuel and emits fewer pollutants than the vehicle it replaced. Those funds came from the federal Diesel Emissions Reduction Act program funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that DEM administers. The city paid the remaining $131,885 from an existing budget allocation.
Warwick is the first community in Rhode Island to take advantage of the grant program, designed to help municipalities get pre-2007 emission standard diesel vehicles off the road and replace them with more fuel efficient and cleaner-burning vehicles. Warwick has decommissioned a 1993 rescue that was being used as a dive truck and the current rescue will be used as a reserve vehicle.
The city has also secured an additional DEM grant of $50,000 that would be used if the city purchases a second new replacement vehicle.