Freewood Acres Provides Continued Service in Family Environment

For Freewood Acres Fire Chief William Donahue and his brother and assistant chief Bobby, being at the firehouse is like being in their second home. After all, for as long as they can remember their father Donald was a member of the department and has the building's memorial hall named in his honor.

Because the brothers have such a strong family connection to the department, they said they try to make everyone feel like they are an extended family while serving a vital role for their community.

Founded back in 1951, even after 60 years of service, Freewood Acres is one of the newest members of the Howell Fire Bureau. With a total of 24 members, including 15 active members, William said there is plenty of experience to call upon when the tones go off.

As with the rest of the fire bureau, Freewood Acres serves a defined area that stretches a total of 15 square miles. Their service area includes from West Farms Road to Aldrich Road and from the Jackson border to the area near Howell High School and Middle School North. Even in that limited area, Donahue said last year they got a total of 344 calls with many of them being mutual aid to help neighboring departments. One of the more recent calls was a barn fire on Lemon Road where they were one of several houses to respond.

While they may not have the large numbers of some other departments, the Donahue brothers said they have what they need to help serve the community. "This is a small group of people that bands together when we really have to," William said. "We're not fighting fires with 50 to 60 guys. We're fighting fires with 10." Not counting the drivers of the trucks that report to a scene and he said that number drops to between four and six.

Just as important as what they do, he said is how they do it. "We grew up here so we know it's supposed to be family," he said. "When family's in trouble you're supposed to help them and we try to keep that going."

Since the time when their father first started with the department, they have seen the area the firehouse covers change greatly. The chicken coops that they say once lined the roadway have now largely been replaced by developments over the years bringing more people to the community they serve.

Having served as chief for 18 years, William said he has been able to combine his work as a professional fire fighter at Fort Monmouth with his time at Freewood Acres to do both jobs better.

In his time with the department, he said he has seen the good and the bad of firefighting and experienced some challenges himself. "We've had good fires where we've saved people and we've had fires where we just can't get there in time," he said.

Even after all these years, he said depending on the fire when the tones go off he still gets a rush of adrenaline when the tones sound. At the same time, his experience he said also helps him to prepare for the fire and help the members of the department do the same.

That experience also comes with some stories he will never forget. That includes a fire in 1984 when he said he stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated in the ambulance and one three years later on Lemon Rd. when he went crashing through a floor into the basement of a house. "I've had things that as chief my goal is to never let that happen to anybody else," he said. "I fell through a floor, I stopped breathing. These things happen in a fire service. If I can stop them from happening I've done my job."

Even after falling into the basement and being surrounded by fire, Donahue said he never considered walking away from the job. "I can tell you what a hot dog feels like when it's being barbecued," he said with a laugh. It was the words of a former fire inspector that he said helped get him back on the truck not long after being released from the hospital. "He told me flat out to get back on the horse," he said. "He said if you don't get back in a fire you never will. I will and I have. If you don't get back and do it you'll be so scared you'll never do it again."

His brother said it is their experience and training that has helped them get through the hard parts of the job. "It goes back on training and experience. You're not going nuts because you have a fire call," he said. "If you're doing this long enough it's, 'okay, we're doing this again.' You're not going nuts, you're not running and you're not going crazy."

Like many of the local departments, Freewood Acres also offers a junior firefighter program. Those area residents who are 16-years-old or older are encouraged to go to the firehouse to learn what is involved in the process. While they learn about the job and the house, William said there are some things juniors will not do. "The biggest thing is we can't put a juvenile in any kind of danger," he said. "We can teach them, but they can't handle a charged hose line, they can't handle any saws. Anything that's dangerous they can't do."

Bobby added that while learning about fire safety is important, they also stress the importance of schoolwork. "Our policy here is that it's also schooling and education," he said. "We make our juniors carry at least a 'B' average." His brother added that the education of their juniors is critical to their success with the department. "We tell them that school is first. Go home and do your homework, the fire department will still be here."

If and when they become active members, attendance at the house is more important, but both said for juniors they need to find that balance. "Because you're a junior we care more about you getting your high school diploma than you being up here learning," William said.

Finding people who want to join as active members can also be a challenge. In order to become a member the person must be 18-years-old, go through a background check and be voted on by the members of the house. After that they go through a rigorous training program at the Monmouth County Fire Academy. For some people, it is the training that William said scares them off from joining the department. "Being a volunteer how do you explain to your wife or kids or anyone I have to give up the next 11 weekends to go to fire fighting school," he said. 

Fortunately, he said people continue to fill the department's ranks. "Out of our member's ranks probably eight or nine of them have been here for 15 years or more and they're not going anywhere," he said.

No matter what their numbers are, Freewood Acres is one of the houses in the Howell Fire Bureau. While the departments might keep to their own on a regular basis, they are always ready to do what has to be done. "When the tones go off you do what you gotta do," he said. "You work together."

For many Howell residents, the fire district they live in may not even be something they are aware of. William said when the fire commissioner elections come up in February they are explaining to residents where they should go to vote. And the vote, he said, is for a budget, which covers a very limited scope of items. "The budget is strictly for financing the district for fire prevention," he said. That includes items like trucks, gear and other equipment. All other items are funded through the departments themselves.

Backyard Chickens Seek Stay

Friday, Cobb County Code Enforcement told the Pond family that they have five business days to remove the hens off their property. The Ponds' will ask Commissioners for inclusion on the January docket at Tuesday's Board of Commissioners meeting.

All is not well in the chicken coop.

Despite repeated attempts, Joseph Pond has not been able to get a county variance change so that his family can keep their backyard chickens.

Last week Judge Juanita Stedman dismissed Pond's civil suit against Cobb County government because he failed to serve the offices within five days, per the law.

On Friday, Cobb County Code Enforcement visited Pond's home before he received the Court Order and told him that he has five business days to remove the hens.

"I have found a beginner backyard chicken guy in East Point that is going to re-home most of my hens. While I had many generous offers to take in my girls, it makes me feel good to help out a fellow backyard chicken supporter. Since East Point is more progressive than Cobb County, the girls will be safe and legal there," Pond told Northeast Cobb Patch in a statement.

At Tuesday's Cobb County Board of Commissioners meeting, The Cobb County Board of Community Development is set to discuss with Commissioners a proposal by Pond and The Backyard Chickens Alliance of Cobb County for inclusion on the January docket. Commissioners will vote on the inclusion.

Pond will find a foster home for his Silkie and Polish chickens until he can get the law changed, he said.

If Pond does not remove the chickens from his property he faces a $1,000 fine.

A Solar-Powered Chicken Coop For Dummies

Urban farming is all the rage these days, and chickens are increasingly chic. Many of us who dream of harvesting fresh eggs every day don’t have the first clue about how to get started, or how to take care of a flock of layers – but a new solar-powered chicken coop design called the Front Yard Coop Full Monty just might take the guesswork (not to mention a lot of the hassle) out of keeping chickens.

Developed in Katonah, N.Y., this mobile chicken coop was designed for the front yard – preferably one bounded by a fence or hedges, as it moves automatically throughout the day, ensuring that the chickens inside get some exercise, even when they’re all cooped up; giving the chickens fresh forage; and spreading beneficial manure over the entire lawn. When the coop hits a dead end, so to speak, it’s smart enough to reverse direction, keeping your chickens safe in your yard throughout the day.

Just fill the feed bin with grain and the water tank with water; this “smart coop” will dispense food and water at appropriate intervals, so you won’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn to make sure your feathered friends get fed. Roosting wastes are easily removed via a series of drawers, and foraging waste helps to keep your lawn green. Predators are repelled by an electrified fence (which won’t hurt the chickens). We assume that the automatic motion of the coop also means that you can leave your flock for a few days if necessary, but as a good friend to your chickens, you’ll want to let them out on a regular basis to free-range, as well.

The Front Yard Coop is available in various versions; Inhabitat reports that the Full Monty model measures 4 feet wide by 8 feet long and propels itself 16 feet every hour using energy from its (included) solar panels. It’ll set you back $3,225 – but save you, of course, whatever you’re currently shelling out for eggs.

Greensburg shares lessons of rebuilding

They have been trekking from the east to a small town in central Kansas in search of guidance. In search of wisdom.

Representatives from several cities hammered by twisters during the deadliest tornado season in decades have been coming to Greensburg in recent weeks to learn how it rebuilt after being all but wiped from the map by a massive tornado on May 4, 2007.

A delegation from Tuscaloosa, Ala., came in early June for a tour and a series of meetings. Last week, representatives from the Joplin area and cities in northeast Mississippi and rural Alabama converged on Greensburg as well.

Tuscaloosa, Joplin and Smithfield, Miss., have all been hit by EF-5 tornadoes this spring, and numerous EF-4s struck cities in Mississippi and Alabama.

"When I see what went on in Alabama, northeast Mississippi and then Joplin, your heart just drops because you know what they're going through," Greensburg Mayor Bob Dixson said.

Greensburg officials have the same basic message for each group that has come to town:

Don't be Greensburg. Be you.

"That's the most important thing in life," Dixson said in summing up his message last week to a gathering of the Wichita chapter of the American Meteorological Society. "Don't try to be somebody else. Be true to your values, be true to your priorities, be true to your principles."

An effective recovery from a disaster isn't about how quickly houses and buildings can be rebuilt, Dixson said. It's about the process.

Learning how to work with state and federal agencies has been "a real educational process," Dixson said.

Identifying your values and then using them to shape your priorities helps clarify planning and establish a road map for the future, Dixson said.

"What are our values? Who are we?" he asked. "You can't set priorities unless you know who you are."

Being stewards

When the concept of "going green" in Greensburg first surfaced, Dixson cringed.

He pictured bell bottoms, tie-dyed shirts, "hair down to here," hugging a tree and folks who use mind-altering chemicals, he said.

"That ain't going to work for us," Dixson said he thought. "We ain't going green. This is stupid."

But over time, he said, he learned going green meant sustainability —"about being good stewards of the resources we've been blessed with, in whatever microclimate you're at."

In Greensburg, that includes using the sun and wind to generate electricity.

In Tuscaloosa and Joplin and Smithfield, it could well mean something else.

"As we shared with Tuscaloosa's people, look at what your ancestors did when they built buildings — how they survived, how they oriented their houses to take advantage of the natural resources," Dixson said.

Many people wondered whether Greensburg would even rebuild after virtually every building in the town of nearly 1,500 was damaged or destroyed. In retrospect, Dixson said, Greensburg was "very blessed" to essentially be wiped from the map.

"We didn't have your haves and have-nots," he said. "It mattered not your socio-economic status. In a matter of minutes, we lost everything.

"The one sustainable resource we had was each other."

Learning experience

Nancy Graves, an administrative liaison for the task force overseeing rebuilding efforts in Tuscaloosa, said her contingent's visit to Greensburg was valuable. They learned they were doing a lot of the right things without even realizing it.

"That was reassuring," she said.

Tuscaloosa officials were particularly interested in learning how the tornado affected Greensburg's economy and how it set about retaining and attracting businesses.

"We learned so many different things it was crazy," Graves said.

Yet Tuscaloosa's approach to recovery has to be different than Greensburg's, she said, because the tornado damaged only a portion of the city of 90,000, not practically the whole city, like Greensburg.

While some residents and businesses are focusing on recovery and rebuilding, she said, the rest of Tuscaloosa can't be ignored.

"We have to continue to push everything forward," Graves said. "That doesn't mean you're going to do it perfectly."

Graves said she liked how designers used cypress from trees flattened by Hurricane Katrina in the construction of Greensburg's new school.

So many of the buildings and homes in Greensburg look normal, she said, not like something strange.

Open to new ideas

When he saw the business incubator building open in Greensburg in 2009, Dixson said, it reminded him of his grandfather's chicken coop in northwest Kansas.

The multi-level roof has banks of sloping tiers featuring small windows so more natural light can stream inside.

Farmers learned that chickens lay more eggs and cows produce more milk if they're housed in buildings that allow in plenty of natural light, Dixson said. So they built barns and coops with slanted roofs and installed windows.

Dixson and his wife lost their "dream home" in the tornado, which killed two of their neighbors across the street and 11 people in all on that first Friday in May 2007.

"We did not have a scrape, scratch or bruise on us," he said. "If we had been over in the southwest corner of the basement, like we were always taught as kids, we would have been covered with debris and I probably wouldn't be here to talk about it."

Dixson's new house features plenty of windows, too — facing east and west to allow views of the prairie's powerful sunrises and sunsets.

The north side of the house has just one window, and it's small.

Those features are a nod to what winters are like in southern Kansas, Dixson said.

The house features long porches on the front and back, to provide shade and reduce utility bills.

It also gives the Dixsons a place to relax in the evening and chat with neighbors as they stroll by — much like neighbors did decades ago before the advent of air conditioning, TV and personal computers.

"Whatever you do, make sure you cultivate those relationships that are important to you," he said. "That is the only true sustainable thing in life — the only thing that will survive the test of disaster, whether it's in your personal life, whether it's in your corporate life or your community."

Community spirit

It's easy to believe Greensburg's residents were brought closer together by their shared experience of surviving a monstrous tornado.

But Dixson said what truly forged bonds among residents was the large tent FEMA set up on the edge of town after the tornado went through.

That was where residents gathered in those first months, because there was no place else left.

"We did everything in this tent," Dixson said. "We ate together, we cried together, we hugged together, we laughed together."

That sprouted and nurtured a community spirit that has served Greensburg well as the town began to rebuild.

"In my opinion, that's why — four years later — we have made the progress we have."

Greensburg is only a little more than half as big as it was the night tornado hit, but officials remain optimistic about the city's future.

"We're not done," Kiowa County Emergency Management director Ray Stegman said. "We have a lot to go yet."

The business incubator is doing just what it is designed to do, he said: Give small businesses a place to sprout, then find their own home as they continue to grow.

Greensburg can't presume to lure a business that employs 200 people, Dixson said, but it can create an environment appealing for small businesses.

That can give Greensburg's young people reason to stay — or return home — to raise their families.

"It's not about us," Dixson said. "It's about future generations. It's about that legacy we're going to leave for future generations."

'Package Store', 'Hen' Hearings Tonight

"Package stores" and chicken coops could arrive in Barrington at just about the same time.

Ordinances to give out Class A liquor licenses in Barrington and to raise hens in back yards for fresh eggs get public hearings before the Town Council tonight, May 9, at 7 in Town Hall.

The councilors are expected “to vote up or down” at the hearings, said Barrington Solicitor Mike Ursillo, who drafted both ordinances.

The Class A liquor-license ordinance incorporates recommendations from several town boards and a myriad of conditions future license-holders will have to agree to. The location of a package store, for instance, cannot be within 200 feet of a school or church. Age-verification equipment must be installed.

If the Class A ordinance is approved by the Town Council, Ursillo said, it is feasible that the first ordinance for a "package store" could be awarded by the councilors within four weeks.

The ordinance to raise chickens, specifically the keeping of hens in a coop behind a house, also includes a variety of conditions, including the number of hens allowed --  3 maximum -- and the space for the chicken coop – no more than 20 square feet.

The town's current zoning ordinance prohibits the keeping of swine or poultry.

Among the other conditions for getting a Class A liquor license are that it reverts to the town and is “not transferable” if the business closes. Also:

   1. Consumption of alcohol cannot take place on the premises or in the parking lot.
   2. The license holder must make sure the business does not disturb the peace or allow “unlawful activity” by patrons, employees or it agents.
   3. No loitering of minors in or around the business.
   4. Attempts to use false IDs must be reported to police immediately.
   5. Alcohol can be sold only from 7 am to 10 pm.
   6. No person can enter the store after 10 pm.
   7. All employees must complete certified alcohol server training.
   8. Employees must be recertified every three years and prove that they completed server training.
   9. Valid server permits must be available in the store.
  10. Stores must display warning signs for anyone underage thinking about buying alcohol.
  11. An owner must have a written policy for checking IDs.

A condition not included is restricting the age of sellers of alcohol.

“I could not find case law to support restricting sellers to a certain age,” Ursillo said, a condition that no other retail establishment must abide by.

The application form for the Class A license also must include “an exact description” of the store to be licensed, including a site plan, and a copy of the article of incorporation or a partnership agreement.

The Town Council could give out as many as four Class A licenses based on the town's population. The councilors decided months ago, however, to walk before they run and award one license after a careful process of moving the town from "dry" to "wet" status in Rhode Island.

See the complete ordinances for a Class A liquor store here: Town ordinance; zoning ordinance.

Raising chickens in Barrington back yards for fresh eggs dates back to October, 2009, when Sam and Dorothy Abram of Bowden Avenue asked for permission.

The issue was referred to the five-member zoning committee, which was formed to recommend amendments to the Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations. The group took up the issue of back-yard chickens late last summer and then adjourned during election season before renewing study of the issue. They reviewed regulations in Warren, Bristol and Providence, which allow the practice.

By a split 3-2 vote, the committee recommended that the zoning ordinance allow chickens in back yards up to a maximum of three on any one lot. Only hens would be allowed -- no roosters. The coop and fenced-in area could be no larger than 20 square feet.

Here are the standards and restrictions:

   1. No more than three chickens on any house lot.
   2. No roosters permitted.
   3. The purpose is for egg production only, not for slaughter.
   4. Chickens must be kept in a coop and an outside area enclosed with chicken wire.
   5. The enclosure must be resistant to predators, like coyotes and foxes.
   6. The surface must not be paved; it must permeable.
   7. Chickens can be raised only in back yards or side yards.
   8. The coop and enclosure must be kept clean and secure; feed also must be kept in a secure container to avoid attracting rodents.
   9. The setbacks for the coop and enclosure shall be the same as those for the main house.
  10. The coops and enclosure shall not exceed 20 square feet.
  11. Property owners who raise chickens must comply with nuisance ordinance requirements.
  12. Chicken manure must be kept within an enclosed compost bin within the 20-square-foot area.
  13. The coop and fence shall not exceed 5 feet in height.
  14. Raising chickens shall be for non-commerical purposed only.
  15. The town shall charge a fee with a registration process.