Activities for the Baker Fireman’s Fountain Re-dedication will take place Aug. 23 and 24, according to officials with the Owego Hose Team. Finishing touches on the fountain site in the Courthouse Square are wrapping up with setting of benches and final landscaping. More than 4,000 bricks, over 600 inscribed, were set onsite the previous weekend by Charlie Munroe of Good Earth Landscaping and hose team volunteers.
The Baker Fireman’s Fountain, depicting a firefighter holding a child, is often described as the symbol of Owego and its community minded residents standing for the spirit of volunteerism that makes Owego great.
The fountain was given to the Village of Owego and its firefighters in 1914 by Frank M. Baker as a memorial to his son, George Hobart Baker, who was killed in an automobile accident in 1913. Both men had been members and chief engineers of the Owego Fire Department. The fountain was last restored in 2000 and turns 105 years old this month.
A gala dinner is scheduled for Friday night, Aug. 23, at the VFW Post 1371 Hall on Main Street. The 250-ticket dinner is sold out. On Saturday, Aug. 24, several events are taking place to include a rededication ceremony at the fountain site; downtown firefighter’s parade; hose race on lower Front Street; and after party at the Rainbow Trail on North Avenue. The public is invited to attend all events in celebration.
The Saturday rededication ceremony will begin promptly at 9 a.m. at the fountain with hose team member, past President and Life Member of Croton Hose Co. #3 Jim Franz officiating. The Owego Free Academy Band will provide entertainment, and there will be refreshments from Mister Koffee Service. Local dignitaries with elected and fire officials will address attendees.
Following the ceremony, a firefighter’s parade will take place downtown from Fox Street, traveling south on North Avenue, then west on Main Street past the fountain and concluding at the County Office Building at 56 Main St. Local antique fire apparatus from the area, along with the Owego Fire Department and Owego Hose Team, headline the parade units.
Hose team members will demonstrate their firematic skills with a hose race on lower Front Street from noon until 3 p.m. between Parker Lane and Academy Street after the parade. Hose races are timed events where firefighters test their skills. Teams of five members must connect nozzles to hoses, hoses to hoses, and hoses to the fire hydrant, and knock down targets in the quickest time in the ladder, wye, and straight lay competitions. Hose races improve basic firefighting skills. Area fire departments are invited to participate in both the parade and hose race.
At the end of the hose race, an after party will take place at the Rainbow Trail at 5 p.m. and will feature music by The Gents. Owned and operated by hose team member Aaron Riegel, firefighter drink specials will include Lime Rickey’s as a nod to the hose team exploits at the Mechanics Club in Montour Falls in the 1970s.
The 104-year-old fountain has undergone a complete restoration led by the Owego Hose Team, who raised all funding for the project and spearheaded all work. The zinc fireman statue cradling a baby has been repaired and repainted its existing colors with white trousers, blue coat and black fire helmet by Robinson Iron in Alexander City, Alabama.
The base of the fountain, including the fountain pool walls, pedestal stem and upper bowl were restored and repainted to the fountain’s original dark green color. The hose team chose “Charleston Green”, which is a paint that works well with cast iron and accentuates the fireman’s colors.
Erected in 1914 the fireman and baby were originally bronze in color with the dark green fountain base. In 1953 local painter and World War I veteran Harry McCoy repainted the fireman with blue trousers, a white coat, and a red helmet in preparation for the Central New York Firemen’s Convention held in Owego that year for $10. The fireman was later repainted his current colors in the 1960s.
All site excavation work was handled by John Chandler of J.O.C. Construction. The fountain site was raised a foot and a half. Seamus Cerretani of SDC Concrete provided the fountain base and pedestal. Electric and plumbing was supplied to the site by Roy Legursky of Legursky and Sons for a new pump and lights that will illuminate the fountain at night. The Owego Jayncess had floodlights installed at the fountain site in 1954 and the lighting has returned.
Other components of the project include a memorial walkway and walk-around provided by Charlie Munroe; stamped concrete sidewalks surrounding the fountain honoring Owego’s five Fallen Firefighters by Justin Hulslander of Hulslander Concrete; and new William G. Pomeroy historic marker on the west side of the fountain. Four 1,000-pound stone benches surround the walk-around, so visitors may sit and enjoy the fountain. The memorial walkway and brick walk around concept are modeled after the Walk of Honor at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland. The same brick type used at the Emmitsburg Memorial from Glen Gery Bricks is being used in Owego also.
Brick orders have come in from all over the country from people with ties to Owego in over 20 different states and were inscribed by Richard’s Monument Service. Global Industrial Services will complete the project with landscaping. Many other businesses contributed to the restoration in some fashion, especially Barney & Dickenson, Inc. and F.S. Lopke, Inc. who contributed materials to the project.
The total project cost for the restoration is over $100,000 funded by the hose team through their annual golf tournament, brick sales, Monte Carlo Nights, chicken BBQs, chicken wing eating contest, and grants from the Mildred Faulkner Truman Foundation, Fannie C. Hyde Charitable Trust, and Allstate Foundation Helping Hands Grant. No tax dollars were spent on the restoration effort.
Memorial bricks continue to be sold as well with the number sold at 640, and can still be purchased on the hose team website at www.OwegoHoseTeams.com.
Project pictures and information is available on the hose team website, www.owegohoseteams.com, and Facebook page @owegohoseteams.
I BOUGHT ONE FOR MY UNCLE, NORRIS PICKERING, WHO I LOVED !!!!