NESQUEHONING, Pa. — Assembled with pride — that was the goal of workers at Kovatch Mobile Equipment (KME) when producing the last piece of fire apparatus to roll off the assembly line in Nesquehoning.
The plant began shutting down last year, with much of the work completed earlier this month.
Now, the truck is staying close to home at the Lehighton Fire Department.
"It's bittersweet. I mean, obviously, having KME so close to us, it was really easy. We have a lot of members, a lot of community members who worked there. So it was always nice to have a piece that was built close to home by people in the community, surrounding communities, that had hands in the workmanship of this vehicle," said Lehighton Fire Chief Patrick Mriss.
Chief Mriss says he never thought his department would receive the last truck but is grateful.
Their current truck needed to be upgraded.
"The borough mechanic has been spending a lot more time on it, you know, fixing things," Chief Mriss said. Every time we go to use it, something hydraulically, either the hoses, cylinders, stuff like that, little odds and ends here and there, and the department and the borough felt it was time that it to be replaced."
This is the fire department's old ladder truck from 1989. It's over 30 years old. The chief says this new truck will be taking over fire calls from now on.
And on each one of those calls, the names of those who worked on the truck will come too. They're written inside the truck.
"I think even the employees talking to them when we were there for inspections and that they just said this just meant so much to them having a truck that was local and they kept an extra eye on everything, poured their hearts and souls into the workmanship of this unit," Chief Mriss said.
The department hopes the new truck can serve Lehighton and the surrounding communities for many years to come.
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