In 1954
Since the meeting hall was running out of room, talk turned to building a new community center/fire station combination with kitchen facilities and public rest rooms. Mayor Lear suggested this to the community-minded members of the department and they mapped out a plan and later a building fund was established. Plans were made to hold a dinner at the Hawks Park Clubhouse in March of 1954 and sell tickets to raise money. The auxiliary was enticed into helping with the dinner. They baked pies and served turkey dinners with all the trimmings to clear a profit of $290. Some of the proceeds went toward the new truck and the remainder went into the building fund.
The footer for the new community center was poured in February of 1954. When the cornerstone was laid in April of 1954, the new fire truck was presented to the town. An auction was held in late April and a chicken barbecue was held on July 5th, along with square dancing and fireworks at night, to raise funds for the completion of the building. The proceeds for the daylong activities were placed into the building fund. Work progressed through 1955 with the fire station started on the back of the building. The first ham dinner was held in the new community center on February 21, 1955. This dinner became an annual fund-raiser for the department. The ham dinners were served by the firemen, auxiliary members and their families until 1977 when the menu was changed to roast beef. The department continued this annual roast beef dinner until 1989. The fire station took another two years to complete.
The Park and Pier project and the widening of Highway #1 that was started in 1957 created problems with power to the department’s siren. The telephone company worked out a deal with the firemen to install phones in their homes. Around June of 1957, the department started the phone call system of notification. When a fire was called in, the person taking the call would call three firemen and their wives would in turn call three additional firemen. This system worked well until 1977, when the department began using the paging system, which is still used to this day.
