2000

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OPINIONS Taking the lead Tommy Malone heats up fire protection There is a five-foot-10-inch reason :ha:

rwt... e a week after regular work hours to attt>nd classes on the ECCC campus for five long years shows what kind of diligence and dedication Malone brings to his job and devotes to serving Leake countians. The purpose of the now completed course is designed to help municipal and county tiD department personnel meet standards and certification requirements. All applicable information Malone learned during the past five years of techni– cal study will, of course, be passed along to the volunteers in the county during their regular and special training sessions. Leake County's fire protection and emer– gency readiness programs enter the year 2000 ready to meet the challenges and tech– nology changes that the coming years will bring in our ever changing world. With six brand new fire trucks stationed at volunteer community stations, Another volunteer fire unit being orga– nized in the Galilee community, New fire stations under construction at Reformation and Edinburg, Highly proficient firefighters ready to protect their neighbors, and A prince of a man like Tommy Malone at the leadership helm, We move into the new millennium confi– dent and unafraid of what the future has in store. MTD

Leake County is pacing the state's 82 coun– ties in rural fire protection and emergeLty readiness. His name is Tommy Malone, the CO\.UltY:. emergency management director since i9S2. who also serves as county fire coordinator and director of E-911 services. Malone, or Tommy as he is more popular– ly called, has never sought nor found a sub– stitute for hard work in achieving a goal. Nor has he ever expected more commitmen~ from a volunteer responder than he expend· ed himself. His leadership is amply packed with encouragement and residents across the county have marveled and applauded as the county's volunteer firemen and first respon– ders continue to devote private time to improving their emergency skills. The results of this training has found fire insur– ance rates lowered on homes and businesses within a five-mile radius of some of the county's fire stations. Malone's latest achievement is in becom– ing the first graduate of the fire protection technology program at East Central Commu– nity College. It didn't come easy. · The study required night courses twice a week over a five-year period of time. The fact that he chose to drive 80 miles

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