Monday, April 26, 2004
The monument will be dedicated over Memorial Day weekend.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- The Mineral Ridge Firemen's Association has bought a monument to honor firefighters past, present and future.
The monument recognizes members of the former Mineral Ridge Fire Department and the current Weathersfield Township Fire Department.
A dedication program will be held May 30, over Memorial Day weekend. The time is not final, Fire Chief Randy Pugh said.
The monument, however, is already in place in front of the Mineral Ridge Fire Station on state Route 46. The department also has stations at West Park Avenue and McKinley Heights.
In 1999, the Weathersfield Township department was organized out of the Mineral Ridge and McKinley Heights fire departments, both of which still run their own firefighters associations.
Honorees
Among those who will be honored when the monument is dedicated is the late Delbert Garland and his family. Garland was chief of the Mineral Ridge Fire Department when it was first organized in 1952. Also honored will be Ken Boring, currently assistant fire chief for Weathersfield Township, who took over as Mineral Ridge chief from 1985 to 1999.
Pugh also said the department has a plaque for firefighters who have passed away, and their names will be read at the dedication ceremony.
Pugh said because of the transition from individual area associations' running the departments to the formation of the township department, he wants current firefighters to have an idea of the hard work of volunteers who passed before them, and a sense of pride. "You've got to have that in the ranks," he said.
The firemen's association paid about $5,000 for the memorial, although its actual cost was $6,000. The memorial was ordered through Lane Funeral Homes, based in Austintown. Owner Joe Lane approved the donation to cover the remaining cost of the stone.
Pugh said the association's donations have provided the "gingerbread stuff" that he, as chief, cannot authorize because he has to stay within the township fire-department budget.
Raising funds
The township's fire associations have run festivals and sold trees and other items to raise funds for the township departments.
He recalled that in 1952, 18 to 20 volunteers signed liens against their own homes as collateral to build the Mineral Ridge station. The McKinley Heights station was also built with the financial backing of members of that department.
The township now has 51 volunteer firefighters who get paid $8.25 a call.
Trustees had requested a levy to add three part-time personnel to staff the Mineral Ridge department full time during the day. The part-timers would have been first responders in the event of a fire call, and funds would also have reinstated an equipment replacement program. Voters turned down the levy in the March 2 election. The 1.5-mill permanent fire levy would have raised $232,000 annually.
Flagpole purchases
Pugh said the township bought three flagpoles for the front of the Route 46 Mineral Ridge station last year. The firemen's association then bought the materials for landscaping in front of the poles.
Pugh noted the only cost to the township has been for the poles.
Three flags fly from the station -- the American flag, the Ohio State flag and usually the Missing in Action flag for veterans, but that is changed if an organization has a flag that it asks the department to fly. Last month, the American Red Cross flag flew on the third pole because it was Red Cross month.
The association also bought a four-wheeler that has been used at high school football games and is also equipped for fighting brush fires.