Fire station spruced up as part of 9/11 day of service

Several volunteers were at the fire station Tuesday afternoon to make improvements to the landscaping as part of the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance.

Volunteers coming and going throughout the afternoon planted flowers and shrubs, marked a walkway, and laid pea gravel and sodding.

The old bench and bell foundation in front of the fire station was replaced. According to fire chief Scott Vaughan, the mortar of the brickwork foundation on which the old bell sat had deteriorated to the point that the bell was tilting. The bell was the one used as a fire alert from 1885 until 1972 when it was silenced and now has a steel framework support. The bench was uptown and had been damaged, and is now repositioned at the fire station as part of the new landscaping.

Molly Reiff, executive director of the Fairfield Volunteer Center was in charge of the event as a way of saying ?thank you? to those who serve the community every day.

A few of the volunteers were: Master Gardener Karin Quass-Hauring and Master Gardener interns Aideen Vega-VanAuken and Sandi Dimmitt; Fairfield City Councilman Michael Halley; firemen Tom Silvers, Mark Brown, James Scotton Brandon Buch and Brad Waugh and Vaughan; Blue Ribbon Landscaping employee Gunnar Fulton; Jacqueline Signori, and Vaughan?s son Spencer.

The September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance was created to provide a positive way to forever remember and pay tribute to the 9/11 victims, honor those that rose in service in response to the attacks, and to remind people of the importance of working more closely together in peace to improve the world.