MEEKER I Rio Blanco County Historical Society’s regular quarter meeting on Sunday was anything but regular as members and guests enjoyed a picnic potluck at the beautiful Downtown Plaza before moving to the Old West Heritage Culture Center for a brief business meeting and a historic presentation on the Meeker volunteer fire department.
Celebrating Meeker Fire Department’s heritage roots, slides with photos were shared of the early beginnings in the 1800s, famous fires over the years, familiar faces of firefighters pas,t and of course the iconic 1936 fire truck that still lives big in our community. As each were viewed, the group shared stories.
There were seven people at the meeting representing our volunteer firemen past and present: Glen Wiggington, Dale Frisby, Joe Fennessy, Brian Conrado, Gary Merriam, Patti Merriam and current Assistant Fire Chief Vaughn Moody.
The people in the audience were invited to address questions to the representative firemen about earlier times that they remembered. As usual, each account sparked another memory and many were shared.
Some stories were funny and some were eye opening to what they have to go through in putting out fires.
At the end, all those gathered honored and applauded our volunteerrFire department and its service to Rio Blanco County.