By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost.com
ROCKWELL ó Hundreds turned out Saturday to check out their new fire station and assorted equipment.
Members of the Rockwell Rural Fire Department welcomed everyone to the station at 11800 Old Beatty Ford Road and served up grilled hamburgers with all the trimmings.
It’s the second station for the fire department which serves approximately 10,000 people spread over 40 square miles ó one of the largest fire districts in the county.
The fire department borrowed $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build the 7,500-square-foot structure. Located on a 2-acre-tract, it’s next door to Grace Lowerstone Church’s recreation facility.
During the dedication ceremony, Chief Allen Cress noted a bronze plaque on the building that dedicates it to past, present and future members of the department.
He talked about the origin of the department in the early 1950s, when a group of Rockwell area residents decided it was time their community had fire protection.
They formed a nonprofit corporation, raised some money and elected Ray Peeler as chief.
“Ray stayed in the capacity as chief for one year. I’m going into my 15th year as chief,” Cress said. “I believe Peeler was a very smart man for serving only one year.”
Cress talked about the challenges of buying the first truck in 1955 and finding a place to house it. Rockwell City had space in its department.
In the late 1960s, under the leadership of Chief Mayford Miller, the department moved to its first fire station ó an old garage previously owned by Peeler, the first chief.
Cress recalled joining the fire department in 1982 in the days when firefighters could still ride on the tailboards of the trucks as they went to fires. “Fortunately for us, they made us quit doing that, which made things a lot safer for us.”
Cress also shared stories during Chief Charles “Bud” File’s tenure of firefighters building their own truck, investing a lot of sweat as they welded and kept adding.
“Unfortunately our service has become so overregulated today with standards of how a a truck should be built, we are unable to do something like that today,” Cress said.
In the mid-1990s, the department’s truck outgrew the old garage. The department bought two lots on Link Street and built its first new station at a cost of $325,000.
Less than a decade later, members started talking about the need for a new station to serve the southern part of the district, with expectation of the growth spreading north out of Cabarrus County.
In 2008, the state fire marshal’s office informed the department that the district exceeded the 5-mile limit (from the station) and those outside the 5-mile limit could see their fire insurance triple.
“The station that we wanted to build for future growth all of a sudden became a necessity,” Cress said.
With the plans and construction ready, Rockwell Rural was put on probation until the new station was completed.And Cress paid tribute to Chief Miller’s family. His son and daughter-in-law, Charles and Betty, Miller, agreed to sell the Old Beatty Ford property for the new station.
Cress said today’s Rockwell Rural Fire Department is in a whole different league from its founding. It now has paid, full-time firefighters to cover peak times.
The chief introduced members of the department’s Junior Explorer Program, calling them the “third generation to take over and keep us moving forward.”
Top officers of the department, in addition to Cress, are: Terry Jones, deputy chief; Art Delaney, assistant chief; and Kevin Holshouser, assistant chief.
The department’s fire commissioners are Lebert Ketner, Alfred Wilhelm and Leo Miller.
Members of other county and municipal fire departments attended the open house along with county emergency service employees and members of the Rowan County Rescue Squad.
The dedication ceremony had one predictable glitch ó the department was called out for a grass fire.