New Dukes Fire Station Celebrated with Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
By Jennifer Wimmer
A Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was held in celebration of the completed construction of the new Dukes Volunteer Fire Department (DVFD) station on Thursday morning, October 3rd. The brand new 4,913 square foot station has the capacity to hold 4 fire trucks, with a helicopter landing pad positioned beside it.
Diann Ray Phelps Meador and her family generously donated the 2 acres for the new station to be built on, and the Mickey and late Harold Wayne Newton family generously donated a half acre of land for the helipad. GN Excavating (Gary Nugent) donated the concrete and poured the landing pad next to the station, designated now as an official Landing Zone for the Dukes community.
Russell Jackson, who works with GN Excavating as a subcontractor for concrete work, presented a gift of a beautiful canvas photograph of the old DVFD station to the Harris family. This was a token of appreciation for the late Wallace (Wally) Bruce Harris’s efforts in founding the old fire station, which was located at the corner of Happy Hollow Road and 144.
Wally’s wife, Rose Mary Hinton Harris, was there to receive the gift, as well as their daughter, Debbie Lindaur, and grandchildren, Rayse Harris and Madeline Lindaur.
Dukes had been operating out of the old station since 1976. They officially moved into the new station, located at 4205 Happy Hollow Road in Hawesville, on August 9th.
Russell said, “Wally Harris was the magistrate in 1976, and he helped get Dukes Fire Station founded. GN Excavating wanted to honor that family for getting this started. We know the hard work it takes to get anything started in a small community. We know Wally was pivotal in that. Not just Wally, but a lot of people. Clayton Gray was involved in that, Wayne Newton, a lot of people who live up and down Happy Hollow Road.”
Diann & Joel Meador explained that the old station was leased out by Diann’s father, the late Paul E. Ray, a veteran of the United States Army Air Corps.
“Kyle Veach (Director of Hancock County Emergency Management, EMT, and volunteer firefighter with DVFD) was talking to me about it,” Diann said. “They wanted to move the spot and so we gave them the other part.”
Joel added, “When this happened, Diann got the building back and the county put a new roof on it, because it needed it.”
Judge-Executive Johnny Roberts said, “We couldn’t have had either one of these facilities without these donations. We’re very fortunate to have people who will do that for the community. This will have lasting effects generationally, after we’re gone. And, none of it is possible without our volunteer firefighters. When everybody else is running away from the fire, they’re running into a fire. They act selflessly, and we’re thankful for that.”
Mickey Newton spoke about their donation of family land as well. “I just feel like it was all a ‘God thing’,” she said. “Randy Masterson called me and said, ‘Would you care if the fire department used that concrete pad?’ I said, ‘Well, no.’ As soon as I hung up, I just felt like God said, ‘Give it to them.’ I called all of my kids and said, ‘What do you think about this?’ They all said, ‘Yes. Papa would be pleased.’ Then, I called and told them.”
The project of constructing a new station began earlier this year with GN Excavating as the general contractor. They sub-contracted out the building itself but completed the rest of the work themselves. GN’s low bid of $1,272,948.13 was approved by the Hancock County Fiscal Court last year. A Kentucky Department for Local Government Community Development Block Grant was awarded to help with the cost, through the assistance of GRADD. The total grant funding for the project was $1M. The initial grant was $750K, then the state allocated an additional $250K due to inflation expense override.
DVFD Chief is Joseph Boarman, Assistant Chief is Dakota Wiltbank, and there are currently 14 additional volunteer members: Jake Embry, David Embry, Ron Embry, Kyle Veach, Chris Finley, Kevin Sanders, Bill Cox, Makena Rearden, Zack Martin, Nolan Veach, Keifer Church, Adrian Poyner, Luke Voyles and Amanda Voyles.
The official Dukes Volunteer Fire Department FB Page is listed as: Dukes Firedepartment. Like and follow them for posted updates. The phone number is (270) 927-8575. *As posted on their FB Page, as well as the other 3 county fire department pages, the Kentucky Forest Fire Hazard Season, per KRS 149.400, is October 1st through December 15th, 2024, and there is No Burning before 6:00 p.m.
