Dukes Fire Dept. Celebrates First Year in New Station, Equipped and Always Ready to Serve and Keep Community Safe
By Jennifer Wimmer
Dukes Volunteer Fire Department’s new station has been operational for an entire year now. The station on Happy Hollow Road in Hawesville has the capacity to hold 4 fire trucks, and there is a helicopter landing pad adjacent to it as well.
The parcel of land for the landing pad was donated by the Newton family, and GN Excavating donated the concrete and labor. There is signage in the gravel parking lot designating the site as an official Landing Zone for the Dukes community.
Director of Hancock County Emergency Management, volunteer firefighter and EMT Kyle Veach said, “It saves us time by allowing us to give coordinates that Air Evac already has, and allows them to fly directly to the landing zone without us having to go and secure a landing zone, and pull people away from the scene. It’s the first one we’ve had in the county that a lot of ground was solely dedicated for that.”
The station construction project began early last year with GN Excavating as the general contractor. They sub-contracted out the building itself and the GN crew completed the rest of the work themselves. Their low bid of $1,272,948.13 was approved by the Hancock County Fiscal Court in ’23. 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, and the state allocated an additional $250K to cover inflation cost.
Dukes had been operating out of the old station since 1976, and officially moved into the new station on August 9th of last year. They did a final sweep at the old station, and a had a cookout at the new station on August 13th, 2024. The members were very happy to have their first Open House at the new station last fall.
Last August, they also received their new side-by-side that’s used for brush and wood fires. They didn’t have one until then in the south area of the county, and it is a tremendous help. Funding was made possible by a grant from Marathon Pipeline, and a donation from Domtar Paper Mill in Hawesville.
Dukes Volunteer Fire Department’s new station has been operational for an entire year now. The station on Happy Hollow Road in Hawesville has the capacity to hold 4 fire trucks, and there is a helicopter landing pad adjacent to it as well.
The parcel of land for the landing pad was donated by the Newton family, and GN Excavating donated the concrete and labor. There is signage in the gravel parking lot designating the site as an official Landing Zone for the Dukes community.
Director of Hancock County Emergency Management, volunteer firefighter and EMT Kyle Veach said, “It saves us time by allowing us to give coordinates that Air Evac already has, and allows them to fly directly to the landing zone without us having to go and secure a landing zone, and pull people away from the scene. It’s the first one we’ve had in the county that a lot of ground was solely dedicated for that.”
The station construction project began early last year with GN Excavating as the general contractor. They sub-contracted out the building itself and the GN crew completed the rest of the work themselves. Their low bid of $1,272,948.13 was approved by the Hancock County Fiscal Court in ’23. 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, and the state allocated an additional $250K to cover inflation cost.
Dukes had been operating out of the old station since 1976, and officially moved into the new station on August 9th of last year. They did a final sweep at the old station, and a had a cookout at the new station on August 13th, 2024. The members were very happy to have their first Open House at the new station last fall.
Last August, they also received their new side-by-side that’s used for brush and wood fires. They didn’t have one until then in the south area of the county, and it is a tremendous help. Funding was made possible by a grant from Marathon Pipeline, and a donation from Domtar Paper Mill in Hawesville.
Dukes Volunteer Fire Department members are: Chief Joe Boarman, Assistant Chief Jake Embry, Captain David Brandle, First Lieutenant Ronald Embry, Second Lieutenant Kyle Veach, Jax Boarman, Kevin Sanders, Chris Gillispie, Bill Cox, Makenna Rearden, Zack Martin, Nolan Veach, Logan Wright, Keifer Church, Maddi Rearden, Adrienne Poyner, Luke Voyles and Amanda Voyles.
The new station is located less than a mile from the old station, at 4205 Happy Hollow Road, in Hawesville. The phone number is (270) 927-8575.
You may have had trouble locating the Dukes Facebook page so that you can like and follow them for updates. That’s because the ‘Dukes Fire Department’ name was already taken by a fire department in Oklahoma. The official Dukes Volunteer Fire Department FB Page is listed exactly as: Dukes Firedepartment.
You may have had trouble locating the Dukes Facebook page so that you can like and follow them for updates. That’s because the ‘Dukes Fire Department’ name was already taken by a fire department in Oklahoma. The official Dukes Volunteer Fire Department FB Page is listed exactly as: Dukes Firedepartment.
