Maitland City Talk

Maitland is proud to be moving ahead with plans for a new fire station and city hall. On Saturday, Nov. 20, as is tradition when fire stations are ‘retired’, the city of Maitland held a ceremony dedicated to all firefighters, paramedics and EMS personnel who were a part of our history in the current location of Station 45.

Since 1973, the Maitland Fire Department has responded to most every kind of call for service from its fire station at the corner of Packwood Avenue and South Maitland Avenue. From a fledging operation of less than 350 alarms per year, answered primarily by a combination force of career and volunteer firefighters, the department grew to two fire stations answering some 4,300 calls in 2009.

Since few things in life remain unchanged, city officials have known for many years that change was afoot in Maitland too. In the early years of this 21st century, plans to replace that ever present icon near city hall and the former police station have progressed, and officials are now on the very edge of making that change happen.

Saturday, Nov. 20, will be a date long remembered by the current members of the Maitland Fire Department, elected officials and many other persons in attendance because it was that night they all attended the “Ode to Station 45” Farewell Dinner. Current and former department members as well as other city employees and elected officials went to Station 45 for its Farewell Chili Dinner. As all prepared to eat, they fellowshipped and heard Maitland’s first full-time Fire Chief, Ezra Hardy, note how it couldn’t have possibly been this many years gone by already. Chief Hardy had a full time staff in 1973 of two firefighters and one secretary as he led what would later become a department made up of some 43 firefighter/EMT/paramedics, lieutenants, battalion chiefs and administrative staff.

A photo presentation showing some of those by-gone years and some in attendance was a stirring reminder proving that, indeed, much time and service has elapsed. All were invited to submit pictures and ideas for a time capsule that is planned to be buried next year when the new station is completed. As the night wound its way toward conclusion, attendees were invited to adjourn outdoors to the station’s flag pole where Fire Chief Ken Neuhard spoke a few fitting words in honor of the building’s many years of service. The department’s Honor Guard ceremoniously decommissioned the station with a flag lowering, as a Fire Department Bagpiper provided background music.

The night concluded with everyone bidding each other fond goodbyes and a commitment to return in about one year for the grand opening ceremony of the new Fire Station 45. Our community looks forward to a renewed vibrancy and synergy that most surely Maitland’s new Fire Station 45 will bring.

Many thanks to Assistant Chief/Administration Bart Wright for his contributions to this article.