Menke Foundation donates $10,000 to fire and police departments

The Huntingburg police and fire departments received about $10,000 from the Menke Charitable Foundation Friday.

Hank and Cory Menke presented Police Chief Art Parks and Fire Chief Scott Patberg with $5,000 for each department.

“It means a lot to us to have these two great departments,” Hank Menke, CEO/President of OFS Brands, said. “These are great and exciting times for Huntingburg.”

According to Parks, the police department will use the money to purchase two body cameras for officers to wear. The cameras will sync with the in-car system the department already has in place. The remaining money will go towards the purchase of four dual band 800 MHz/UHF radios.

The department needs the new dual band radios since the county is updating to the 800 MHz system and the Indiana State Police is already on the system. Huntingburg is on UHF and the current radios will not work with the county and state system.

According to Patberg, the Huntingburg Fire Department purchased a infrared camera designed to allow firefighters to view into homes during emergencies. The system allows firefighters to potentially see people who may be in burning buildings or to detect hot spots.

“During the active shooting drill we had the other day we realized there are some communications gaps that we have,” Mayor Denny Spinner said. “We have to keep those communications working and this will help us respond immediately to those needs we identified.”