Churchill County held a party for the community last week to honor the firefighters and to recognize CC Communications 125th birthday of providing a plethora of services to the region.
“Celebrate Us” also displayed photos and paintings by local artist and introduced a children’s book, “The State that Made a Nation Great,” a project that originated out of teacher Linda Rasmussen’s class at Numa Elementary School.
Two firefighters who are professional photographers, Skips Reeves from Fallon and Jim Crawshaw from the air station’s fire department, took numerous photographs that are now on display in one of the main hallways of the County Administration Building.
The evening, though, belonged to two established agencies.
Mayor Ken Tedford Jr. and County Commission Chairman Carl Erquiaga presented proclamations to both the Fallon/Churchill and Naval Air Station Fallon’s Federal fire departments on Sept. 11, a day in which 343 firefighters lost their lives 13 years ago in New York City.
The Fallon/Churchill Fire Department has a crew of 41 volunteer firefighters operating out of one main and two substations covering 8,500 people in the city and 25,300 in a county of more than 5,000 square miles.
The Federal Fire Department has a crew of 43 firefighters operating out of two states that cover 4,000-8,000 people living in an area of 1,600 miles including the protection of the air station and local support.
The proclamation recognized the Fallon/Churchill Fire Department for its three specialized response teams, while Fed Fire provides expertise in fire suppression, crash/rescue, confined space rescue and emergency medical response for the entire based.
Fallon’s fire department has earned the highest rating, ISO Class I, and was the first volunteer fire department to receive the designation.
CC Communications began in 1889 as a county-owned telegraph company but is also a full service state of the art telecommunications provider, offering telecommunications, broadband internet, digital television, and security services to Churchill County and Northern Nevada.
CC Communications, the only county-owned telephone/telecommunications company in the United States, is one of the oldest companies in the county. According to the proclamation, CC Communications has a $30 million impact annually on the local economy and over the years has donated approximately $40,000 s annually to local events, schools, non-profit and charitable organization.
During the years, CC Communications has evolved into one of the nation’s most advanced fiber to the home providers, offering telephone, long distance, broadband Internet, television, data management, computer repair and support, personal emergency and home and business security monitoring services.