Thank you.

Please.

Jordan Pledge Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God.

Indivisible with never being injustice trial.

Thank you.

In accordance with Section 841412, the Nebraska Revice Statutes a current copy of the Open Meetings Act is available for view and is posted on the wall of the council chambers.

Will you take roll, please?

Mayor Class.

Here.

Bush Cutter.

Here.

More here.

Okay, thank you.

Ummunications at this time we have representatives from the fire department in attendance to the podium, and we're going to read uh a proclamation, and then uh you can share some insight as to what we're what we're doing and celebrating.

So first of all, read the proclamation.

This is signed by all the council members.

Uh whereas the founders of Kearney enacted their first fire legislation in February of 1873 after recognizing the dangers that fire could mean to the community, noting that the majority of citizens of Kearney believed the destruction of the city by fire was merely a question of time.

And whereas in 1874, the fire department contained two parts the Kearney Hook and Ladder and Hose Company and the Wide Awake Hose Company.

And whereas in 1875, an ordinance was adopted providing 100 for the purchase of ladders, buckets, and hooks to be used at uh at the closet well to the fire, and as the only way to extinguish the fire was by Bucket Brigade and the ploughing of fire breaks.

And whereas in the summer of 1883, a city fire uh waterworks was installed, and shortly thereafter, the Carney Protective Hook and Ladder Company number one, followed by the Kearney Protective Hose Company number two were incorporated.

You guys knew all this, right?

Whereas I had to whereas the members of the Carney Fire Department uh were recognized in 1902 by the Kearney community by holding the world's record uh in the hose coupling contest, winning three straight championships and one world championship.

And whereas on December 1st, 1939, the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department moved into the newly constructed City Hall building at 18 East 22nd Street.

And now Michael, we know how when this building was.

And whereas when fire destroyed the first United Methodist Church in December of 1969, the city acquired the property and built Fire Station 1, where they moved in 1972 and remain today.

And whereas in 1998, Fire Station 2 opened at 3820 30th Avenue, and whereas today the City of Kearney employs 12 full-time and 12 part-time fire engineers, a fire administrator, an office manager, a part-time secretary, and approximately 51 volunteer firefighters who continue to honor the tradition that began 140 years ago.

Now therefore be it resolved that the Kearney City Council encourages the Carnegie community to join with the city council is express our gratitude to those who have served and those who are now serving by honoring, remembering and celebrating the rich history and accomplishment of the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department has achieved over 140 years of service in the Kearney community.

So since you uh got off on that note, uh Randy, we'll start with our history back in the 1800s again.

You missed a few.

No, but I first of all I just want to thank the city council, city manager, your staff, and our staff at the fire department.

Um we can't do what we do without your support.

And I think uh when I got on in 1977, it's always been that way.

I think I've seen six city managers and a lot of council members, and I don't recall any of them not supporting the fire department, and we couldn't do it without your support.

Uh that's in just imperative to us.

And the other thing I would like to thank is the citizens of Carney.

Because again, sometimes we have fundraisers, like sometimes all the time we have fundraisers.

By the way, Bingo starts next uh tomorrow night.

Um anyhow, uh you know it's the citizens of Kearney has always been behind us and had our back when we ran the emergency unit.

Uh I mean it just again it's just nice to have that kind of support behind us.

But that wasn't always the case.

Uh well, and I'm gonna thank the suburban rural fire board or suburban uh fire board as well, because again, they handle the other side of us the in the rural area, and they've always been uh very supportive of us as oil.

Well, but that's not always been the case when you're reading the history.

Uh in 1922, the fire department only had a uh I think it was a 1916 KISL, it was a soda asset card, it wasn't a pumper.

And the fire department told the city council they wanted a pumper, and the city council says no.

Well, they uh voted and they they kind of walked.

And I think they were only gone for about three days when the city council saw that they were serious.

That was in March, and in August they had the 1922 American La France era.

So uh anyhow, that is a little bit of a tidbit uh back.

No, no, no, not at all.

Okay, uh, and then also a part of uh the history which we don't have anymore is is the emergency units that we ran.

That was from 1938 through 19 uh 88, so 50 years of running emergency units, and when those started, we had the only emergency unit uh for miles around.

A lot of the small towns did not have them.

I wasn't there, obviously, but I can remember some of the guys that were, and they ran a different counties, and they would pick up sometimes polio victims and run them to Omaha or Lincoln, and then the fire department eventually got our own iron lung and we operated that, or we didn't operate it so much, but we loaned it out to people who had polio back in those days.

So uh fast forward a little bit.

When I got on in 1977, we had eight total apparatus, uh basically six fire trucks, including your pumpers, tankers, and grass rigs, and of course the two emergency units.

We had no paid staff, we had three drivers, as they were called that actually, if you look back in the records, they were called custodians.

That's how they were paid.

They were they were called custodians, but they were uh on duty at the fire station uh 24-7, and we only had one fire station.