Dayton Daily News: Dayton trucking firm want to help Flint

Dayton trucking firm want to help Flint

Kevin Burch, president of Dayton’s Jet Express Inc., wants to send bottled water to Flint. He’s looking for local donations. Credit: THOMAS GNAU/STAFF

 

The president of a Dayton trucking firm knows just what he wants to truck up to Flint, Mich. — bottled water, and lots of it.

Kevin Burch, president of Jet Express Inc., said he intends to ship as many pallets of bottled water north to his hometown of Flint as he can.

He is asking for donations of water to be left at 4518 Webster Street offices, but only during business hours.

Nearly two years ago, Flint city officials, under the guidance of a state-appointed emergency fiscal manager, switched their city’s water supply from Lake Huron to the nearby polluted Flint River.

City water is eroding old iron main pipes, with lead leaching from the pipes into the water, observers say. The city’s 100,000 residents cannot drink from their taps. The National Guard is handing out bottled water, and the state is scrambling to deal with the situation.

“I tell you what, that town is hurting,” Burch said.

Burch wants to do what he can from Dayton, encouraging donations of water for a week or so before taking the water north to Michigan.

He estimates that about 45,000 bottles of water would fill a truck trailer. He would donate the services of a driver and the use of a truck and trailer to ship the water to Flint, probably to a United Way office in the area, he said.

It’s a trip of about 252 miles or about 3.75 hours one way.

“I’ve got a game plan,” he said. “I’ve got to plot it out.”

He said he will personally buy a couple of pallets of water. He also hopes to enlist the help of Dayton Freight, which has a terminal or service center in Flint.

Link: Dayton Daily News