It was a busy afternoon in Toledo on Monday, Oct. 5, as aside from the regular Toledo City Council meeting, volunteers and staff at the Lewis County Fire District (LCFD) 2 fire station next door to Toledo City Hall also held a push-in ceremony, christening two new Kenworth pumper-tender fire trucks.
LCFD 2 Fire Chief Christopher Davidson explained the two new fire trucks were being dedicated to LCFD 2 EMT Janice Nielsen and LCFD 2 Captain Dale Nielsen, both of whom have served the fire district for over 30 years.
“We honor these two with a dedication of our two new pumper-tenders you see before you. Our newest first-out units, we have Engine 2-1 and Engine 2-2, both equipped to serve our community hopefully for the next 30 years,” Davidson said.
Both Kenworth pumper-tenders have 3,000-gallon water tanks, along with a variety of fire fighting and first responder equipment.
“We’re proud of all the people we serve with. There’s one thing that will never change about the fire service, and that is volunteers are needed. They can’t afford to do it without us,” Janice said. “And it doesn’t work into everybody’s lifestyle, but I am eternally grateful for my brothers and sisters in the service over these 30-plus years, that have walked into some tough situations and stood beside us. Thank you for being here for us.”
“You go on calls, you meet a lot of great people in real bad times, and I wish all this time I would have kept a diary,” Dale added. “Because there are some calls I will not forget, calls I want to forget, and all the good times we had.”
Following the push-in ceremony, Davidson told The Chronicle the old Pierce 3,000-gallon pumper tender LCFD 2 has will be retained, giving the department a total of 9,000 gallons of water they can take with them to respond to calls in the future.
While the city council meeting was brief — as the council had no old or new business on its agenda to discuss — Toledo Historical Society member Sandy Hare provided an update as to the status of the South Lewis County community’s upcoming 145th birthday celebration.
Last month, Hare made a call for more volunteer help with the party, stating that the event might have to be scaled down or even cancelled altogether if she and the other organizers didn’t get more help, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
“People in Toledo evidently aren’t real comfortable using QR codes, so we still don’t know how many people are going to show up. So we had to modify things a bit,” Hare said. “One of the major modifications is that it will now be a free event, and it will be shorter and there won’t be as many things involved, but we will still have the magician, and we will still have the community (drone) photo.”
Toledo’s 145th birthday celebration begins at 9:30 a.m. with the magician show at Toledo Middle School, followed by the community drone photo at 10:30 a.m., which will be moved inside of the school’s gym if the weather is rainy.
Instead of the previously planned breakfast and lunches, a free community brunch will be served from 11 a.m. to noon, featuring chili, cornbread, egg frittata, fresh fruit and beverages.
Then, from noon to 1 p.m., attendees are invited to share ideas about what they would like to see in the new proposed Toledo Historical Society Museum, while games including cornhole will be available too.
At 1 p.m., the birthday cake presentation will begin — with two birthday cakes, one for Toledo’s 145th birthday and another celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
For more information, follow or message the Toledo Historical Society on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Toledo.Historical.Society/.
