April-September 2007 WWW.WRFMC.COM Volume 13, Number 2 President’s Log also provided two antique fire engines that Another significant development during by John Zangerle participated in the ceremonial parade from the last several months is a tentative resolu- the old Memorial to the new Memorial. tion of the Innerbelt on-ramp location con- !ere have been some major develop- While not nearly as exciting, our work troversy with the Ohio Department of Trans- ments to report since our last newsletter. on the fund raising side continues. As I re- portation. !e Museum has been an active First, the fun stuff. !e Mu- Photo by Paul Nelson participant in the ODOT seum has acquired an original process and we were invited Cleveland Fire Station Bell to a meeting with the major from 1872 with a full inscrip- parties affected, including the tion on the face of the bell. I Cleveland Indians, the Cleve- won’t spoil the full story about land Cavaliers the Gateway how we acquired the bell that community development will be a separate article in group and the City of Cleve- the next issue of the Bugle. land Traffic Division. ODOT I feel it is a very significant has decided to do a grade level addition to our collection. ramp that will start very near Shortly after its acquisition, the current ramp entrance. our firefighter volunteers !is should be far enough made an impressive wooden away from the Museum to support to hold and display give us the space and access the bell. !is was completed that we need. just in time to be an essential Everyone enjoys a parade part of the Firefighter’s Me- and the Cleveland/West Park morial dedication June 15, Fourth of July parade has be- 2007. !e bell was rung as Ringing of the Museum’s Bell at the Fire Fighter’s Memorial dedication ceremony come an event that the Mu- the name of each line-of-duty seum regularly supports and death was read. !anks to the many people ported in the last issue of !e Bugle, our by- participates in. !is started years ago when who helped with this project. !e Museum law changes have allowed us to expand our then-councilman Mike Dolan requested my Board. We have taken advantage of this op- antique fire truck for the parade. !is year portunity by adding a number of commu- the Museum participated with the support of IN THIS ISSUE nity leaders to our Board. !e Board has newly elected Martin J. Keane. !is parade Executive Director’s Report ........... 2 also created a Capital Committee to take draws huge crowds and I think Dan Hayden the lead in major fund raising. !e Com- knew half of them. I want to thank all those Project Progress ............................. 2 mittee had its first meeting in July and we who brought their rigs. Bob Gahr deserves Bits and Pieces .............................. 3 hope to be well underway with fund raising the “longest-distance” award for finding a Fire Fighter’s Memorial ................. 5 efforts this fall. An article on the fund rais- trailer and hauling his 1919 Model-T all the !e Bell ........................................ 6 ing plan and a profile of our new members way over from Chardon! In Memory ................................... 7 will appear in our next issue of !e Bugle. If anyone wonders about the appeal of Parting Shots ................................. 7 !e Capital Committee is extremely im- a Fire Museum, you should know that we portant because we are rapidly reaching the continually receive requests for visits from Calendar of Events ........................ 8 stage where we have completed as much of out-of-town firefighters and fire buffs. In the !is newsletter is dedicated to informing the demolition work as we can do on our last six weeks we have had firefighters from the Western Reserve Fire Museum members own. We are now ready for the next phase Cincinnati, Chicago and New York stop by. of Museum activities and events. of the project which will require the over- Even though there is little to show them at !is is a publication of sight of a general contractor. Obviously, this time they are equally excited about the !e Western Reserve capital funds will be needed for both labor potential for our Museum with its terrific Fire Museum and Education Center and supplies even though we know a signifi- location, historic significance and unique 310 Carnegie Ave. cant portion of the work will be donated. Gamewell system in the alarm office. Cleveland, Ohio 44115 Our project manager’s report in this issue Phone: (216) 664-6312 provides additional details. continued on page 2, see LOG Page 1 Fundraising, Planning, Public Relations, and Construction The Fire Museum Project is more than just a Did You Know demolition project ? Project Manager’s Report By Scott Carpenter Did you know that the Fire Museum has a large collection of Cleveland Fire Departments Journals, some dating to the beginning of the For the majority of our readers !e Bugle is the main source of informa- paid Fire Department? Did you know that the tion about the Fire Museum project. So, in this issue, with few or no articles Fire Museum has a large collection of paper about construction, you may have gotten the impression that the volunteers memorabilia pertaining to the Fire Department. have completed construction. !e reason for this is simple — the Fire Mu- Dear Museum members who are reading this seum project is more than just a construction project. newsletter and thinking, “How can I help?” — “I Dan Hayden’s report about the Journals Project touches one of the other can’t swing a hammer; I can’t lift buckets of con- projects we’re working on. Care of our collections is one of the most impor- struction debris; I have a bad back, bad knees, tant aspects of our operations, and is, in fact, an ongoing part of the museum arthritic hip…” Well, if you can pick up a phone business—as long as we continue to collect artifacts we will continue to book or a twelve-pack of beer then you should be have collections projects. For the Fire Museum, the journals, with more than able to pick up a journal and help preserve the 3,000 of them, is the largest project of its kind and when completed there history of the fire department. Can I count on won’t be a collection like it anywhere in the country. you to help? Nevertheless, the Project continues to be everyone’s top priority. !ese Also, I am calling on those Fire Museum last few months we’ve been working very hard at building up the Board and members who were the movers and shakers in- developing a Capital Campaign Committee. A list of new board members volved with the Fire Department and the Union, and Capital Campaign Committee members is included in the President’s to step forward and give us a hand. We are meet- Log. Both of these groups are needed to help raise the money and in-kind ing weekly with city, county, and state officials. gifts needed to complete the project. To meet this need we’ve been meeting We are asking Judges to help out. We have the with prospective givers as well as those who can help with the campaign. Building Trade Unions getting involved with the While we’ve been developing these committees, we’ve also been solidifying project. We need YOU to help US. You have our agreements with the Trade Unions and Donley’s Inc., our construction the connections, the know-how, to help with manager. Each has made a significant pledge of support for the project. We the Fire Museum. Please don’t be an outsider, also received $40,000 from Cleveland City Council to help pay for the fire come down and join the fun! alarms and sprinkler systems. But that’s not all… Dan Hayden, Executive Director Getting the word out is of growing importance. To earn the support of the philanthropic community we have to prove our value—we have to ef- fectively demonstrate the importance of what we’re doing and why. So with the fundraising campaign comes a public relations campaign. To meet this need we recently promoted the project on Applause, an arts and culture program on WVIZ, Channel 25. !e producer and the host like the project Work Days Schedule so much that they’ve decided to follow the progress of the project in future Cleanup for October 11 Event programs. !ey’ve also expressed interest in doing a documentary about the fire service and more specifically our Alarm Office. We hope to do programs • !ursday, Sept. 27 about the capital campaign, the ground breaking, and the opening of the • Tuesday, October 2 Fire Museum. • !ursday, October 4 To get ready for the ground breaking and construction, Donley’s has developed a project schedule with a list of phases and costs associated with Contact Dan Hayden if you can help those phases. With this information and our architectural plans and speci- fications, we, along with Donley’s, the Trade Unions, and our architects, will be asking sub-contractors, vendors, and manufacturers to support the LOG, continued from page 1 Finally, Mayor Jackson and Chief Stubbs again asked project. us to participate in the display at the City Hall Rotunda And still demolition continues. We’ve been steadily making progress on honoring Cleveland Safety forces. We worked with the work that needs to be done in anticipation of the elevator. Walls, plumbing, Cleveland Division of Fire providing historical displays.