WESTLOCK – The Town of Westlock’s decommissioned 1987 Ford/Thibault ladder truck has started its 3,500-plus kilometre journey from the bowels of Jubilee Arena, to the west coast of Mexico with a six-month detour to Grande Prairie.
On Sept. 27, Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie members Norman Lafleur and Mark Marcotte picked up the bright-yellow truck from the Westlock Fire Hall and drove it back north where it will be inspected, serviced and given some new decals before it’s donated to a community in Mexico as part of the club’s aptly named Highway to Mexico project. Handing over the keys to Lafleur and Marcotte were fire chief Stuart Koflick, mayor Ralph Leirger, Coun. Curtis Snell and CAO Simone Wiley.
“We live in such a privileged country and it’s thanks to people like mayor Ralph, town council and the Town of Westlock that this vehicle can continue on and help people,” said Marcotte, before boarding the truck for the 350-kilometre trip back to the club’s home base.
Running for more than 20 years, Highway to Mexico has seen 105 fire trucks, school buses, handi-buses and tanker trucks donated to communities in Mexico — Lafleur noted that more than 85 per cent of the vehicles they’ve sent south of the border are still on the road.
Marcotte, who along with Lafleur are heading Highway to Mexico for 2021, said they’ve been trying to make a delivery run since March 2020, but due to COVID-19 the trips have continually been delayed. The Westlock truck will be part of the club’s next run to Mexico, which is slated for spring 2022.
“Usually we take around seven and 10 has been the max, but we’re so far behind so we’re planning on taking 14 vehicles next year,” said Lafleur.
“It’s going to be huge,” Marcotte added.
Amazingly, Rotary Club members spend a week on the road driving the donated equipment from their home base in Grande Prairie, throughout the western half of the United States and down to Mazatlán, Mexico. From there, with help from the Mazatlán Rotary Club, the equipment is parsed out to neighbouring communities in need.
“They put on big events for us. They’re so grateful and appreciative to get this equipment,” said Marcotte. “It’s incredible.”
“Just like today, the mayor comes out … at the last one we did there were probably 20 people who spoke and we were there for two hours,” Lafleur added. “When you bring an ambulance to one of those hospitals it means that lives are going to be saved.”
And although the equipment heading south may have some dings and scrapes, it’s a vast improvement over what most of the communities have.
“The one fire department had a pickup truck with a 200-gallon water tank and a Honda pump and they were running into buildings in their flip-flops,” said Marcotte. “We gave a school bus to one school and at that point they didn’t even have a road … when they found out they were getting a bus, they built one. When we delivered that 56-passenger bus, we took a picture with all the kids — 256 kids crammed into the bus. It was amazing.”
At town council’s April 12 meeting, councillors voted 6-0 on a motion by Snell to let administration explore donating the ladder truck, while selling the 1977 Ford/Superior fire truck and the support van — all three had been housed in Jubilee Arena.
Koflick told council then that the 1987 truck has reached its end of life as required under current North American standards, but could still be used in other countries, like Mexico. In addition, the town had recently added its new $1.3 million 2020 Rosenbauer Cobra Aerial Platform truck to the fleet, making the old one redundant.
After the truck had hit the road, Koflick said he was glad to know it would be getting a second lease on life.
“Just knowing that it’s going to serve another community is certainly something that we can all be proud of,” said Koflick, noting a video of the truck leaving the hall on Facebook was bittersweet for many past members. “But the right fit for it was its next assignment serving another community.”
George Blais, TownandCountryToday.com
