County honors volunteers

TYRONE--The Watkins Glen Fire Department and Burdett Fireman Jason Kelly took the top honors during the 2015 Schuyler County Training Banquet, held Friday, March 27 at the Tyrone Fire Hall. The Watkins Glen Fire Department was honored for having the most training hours out of nine total departments. Kelly received the award for Most Student Hours, coming in with a total of 69 training hours last year.
Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Kennedy was the emcee for the evening, recognizing not only the efforts of those who took the emergency training course, but also honored the people who did the training.
"I think this is a significant accomplishment for all the departments," Kennedy said.
For Kelly's accomplishment, Kennedy said it is normally somebody new who will come into a department and tally a lot of training hours, but added he was surprised to see an established member take home the honor this year.

"It just goes to show you continue to learn and can continue to get educated to go forward in your career," Kennedy said.
The ceremony honored the students who passed training courses that ran from April, 2014, to March, 2015. The courses included four emergency medical services (EMS) training sessions and 10 fire classes.
In EMS, there were a total of 32 students who had a combined 1,708 total hours across all four training sessions. For the 10 fire courses, there were 99 total students in Schuyler County who received 136 certificates for a combined 2,209 training hours.
The Watkins Glen Fire Department had the most with 19 students, 32 certificates and 401 training hours, followed by Odessa with 18 students for 25 certificates and 311 training hours, and Mecklenburg with 11 students for 13 certificates and 298 training hours. Following Mecklenburg was the Burdett Fire Department with 10 students earning 14 certificates for a total of 270 hours, while Montour Falls had nine students earn 11 certificates for 264 hours.
Beaver Dams logged 13 students completing 18 certificates for 262 training hours, while the Valois, Logan and Hector Fire Department had 10 students for 13 certificates and 202 hours. Tyrone's five students earned six certificates for 129 hours, and Monterey added four students for four certificates and 72 hours.
There were also a total of 21 students from Seneca, Tioga, Steuben and Chemung Counties who earned a total of 21 certificates for 328 total training hours.