Thanks to everyone who has been helping out with painting at Station 3. The paint job looks great so far! I don't know exactly who's been out there but do have a few names to throw around. Earl, if I'm not mistaken, was out there painting every weeknight last week, except Tuesday, when he was at Station 2 for training. Jim spent a couple of nights helping Earl paint and rolling one of the bedrooms. Quite a few of the Support group members and a few responders showed up on Sunday for a painting frenzy. I stopped by the station around 6:30 that evening to pick up a few more of my tools (to use on my own bathroom remodeling project that's been put on hold for the last year and a half while I worked on Station 3) and looked around. The paint was still wet, so I'd obviously just missed people. Two of the bedrooms looked finished as were their walk-in closets. The kitchen has one coat, but needs a another. The middle bedroom has been primed, but doesn't have a first paint coat yet. Everything on the first floor looks fantastic with a complete coat of sharp white paint.

Hey everyone,

As some of you may already know, in about a month I will be leaving the department. I have taken a promotion at work that has me moving to Anchorage. My start date for my new job is April 2nd, and I plan on staying with CGFR until the very end. I am currently scheduled to pull shift on March 28th as Battalion 4, and that will be my last night on duty (with my original shift I might point out). I had the chance to sit down with Chief Willard yesterday to let him know my plans.

The other night Paul and I sat down over the last of our keg of beer and tried to remember "the good 'ole days".

Painting is in progress at Station 3. Earl, Phil and Guy primed and painted much of the living quarters, but there's still a lot of paint to roll out. We're hoping to have the painting done by the end of the upcoming weekend, but that will only happen with help from you! I know everyone's busy, but please, everyone, squeeze some time into your schedules to come out to Station 3 and run a paint roller for a a wall or two. If everyone helps out just a little, Earl won't have to spend the rest of his life painting 8-)

There's a signup sheet at station 2, but you don't need to sign up if you don't want ... just come on out! All the supplies are there. Full instructions are in place. Earl will (probably) be there every night except for Tuesday training. Can't come out in the evening? Come out during the day or at 3:00am when you're fighting a bout of insomnia. Paint a single wall or an entire room! Bring a friend! Every little bit helps.

Working on Station 3 and bringing it to the point where equipment and people can be housed is not only important, it's a long lasting contribution to the health, well-being and safety of everyone who lives on Goldstream Road today, tomorrow, and next year. While it's extremely important that CGFR have you responding to fire and EMS calls (because if you don't do it, who will?), once you move on from CGFR your contribution effectively ends. That's not the case with building the fire station ... in fifteen years, when the engine rolls out of Station 3 to a 10 story hi-rise condo fire on Willow Run, it will be, in part, because you came out and helped paint the bedrooms. That's the closest most of us will come to being immortal!

~Paul

A long, hard winter's toil has pushed Station 3 to the point where it's finally ready for interior paint. The sheetrock job took a LONG time to finish because we had to work around and finish all the angles and penetrations caused by the steel trusses. Oh, and there were around 15,000 square feet of sheetrock to finish. For ameteurs like me, Earl, Jarkko and Phil, that is a huge amount of sheetrock!

As I write this on Sunday morning, Earl and Phil are at the Station spraying primer on the walls. The bedrooms and kitchen upstairs will be painted in a combination of six different colors, two colors per room. It should look pretty cool when finished. We're asking volunteers to come out and help roll the paint, as it is difficult to spray two different colors in one small room. There's a signup sheet at Station 2 for every day between today and Sunday Feb 25. Come on out and help us knock this job out so we (Phil, Earl, Jarkko and Paul) can enjoy our summer this year!

[img_assist|fid=1242|thumb=1|alt=Rocken' and rollin']
October 7, 2006 the Annual Meeting was held at Station 3. The goal was to show the attendants how much progress has been made. The boiler is warming the station to a comfortable - shirt sleeve- temperature. Much improvement over last year's -30, when the insulation was going in. The well was drilled this summer, so there is pleny of water to make coffee, and all the clean up chores that come along with painting and mudding.
An additional goal of having the annual meeting there was to make it obvious that there is still a lot of work to be done. The annual meeting was attended by the board of directors, CGFR staff and many volunteers. Paul and Phil took advantage of a few more than normal volunteers out there to sheet rock in the tall bay wall with the 12 foot sheets. (as shown in the picture)
So anyway, there is much more to be done, but don't worry, the vast majority of the painting is going to be done with a paint sprayer. Anyone is welcome to come out on Saturdays. Paul and Phil are working some evenings. So contact them if you can help out.

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[img_assist|fid=1152|thumb=1|alt=Framed!]
We finished up the framing at station 3 this weekend. Thanks to everyone who has helped out from start to finish on this huge project. I'd like to take a moment to single our Phil as our Builder of the Month.

Phil has been the major player in the creation of this fire station. He's done the work of ten other volunteers, much of it behind the scenes. He's spent dozens, if not hundreds, of hours working on the plans and coming up with engineering ideas to work around the limitations that have been placed on us by the building shell. He has spent other countless hours working with vendors and contractors to ensure we have all the right materials on hand and that the "pros" come in when requred. On top of all that, he's been out swinging a hammer, so to speak -- we like our nail guns, at 99% of the work parties we've had. It's fair to say that Phil's commitment has literally saved the department hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Thanks, Phil, for all your work. I certainly appreciate the value you've added to the project. A number of other people have committed most of the last six months working on Station 3, but without you clearing the way, this project would have died long ago. As a resident of the service area, Thanks!

p.s. There's still a lot more work ahead ... anyone and everyone can come help out on Wednesday and Friday evenings and all day Saturday and Sunday.

[img_assist|fid=965|thumb=1|alt=End of a hard day's work]What a great weekend of work we had at Station 3. Andrea, Jen, Rick, Jarkko, Earl and Paul busted it out and hung the thirty foot long, 700 pound beams that support the second floor. We also managed to install the joists between the beams on Saturday.

Sunday was spent cleaning up a few loose ends and hanging the another bunch of the floor joists. Rick, Ron, Earl and Paul had a relaxing and peaceful day doing that work.

Our nice large, uncluttered space that was the barn sized Station 3 is slowly being cut up and turned into living area. This weekend's work was the most dramatic evidence of our progress. We'll have the rest of the floor joists installed by the end of the week. Work parties will take place Wednesday and Friday evenings if anyone else wants to come out and help. It's fun work and measurable progress is very quick.

Well our first big fundraising event outside of the Alyeska auction is finished!

After all of the planning and the countless hours put in to prep the flowers and organize the orders we delivered 90 dozen orders on Valentines Day all over the Fairbanks area. Thank you to Earl Voorhis, Jen Wilson, Bill Witte and Paul Buccigross for helping deliver the flowers. I have not heard of any complaints from recipients or purchasers as of today but I have heard many good things from recipients who were very happy with the roses they received.

I want to thank all of the CGVA members who helped prep the flowers on Monday. We received the flowers at about 1130hrs on Monday and had to get them all trimmed and placed in water for four hours prior to placing the water tubes on them and organizing the orders.

I just wanted to let everyone know that Chena Goldstream Fire and Rescue was presented with the American Heart Association's "Heart Saver" Award. This award also came with a $500 check from Denali State Bank to go to the volunteers. (The support group will be working on a wonderful way to use the money to recognize volunteers)

Joy Moser and I attended the "GO RED FOR WOMEN" luncheon yesterday, which is a heart disease awareness seminar sponsored by the American Heart Association, and accepted the award for the department.

So..... Why did we win????? well......

Some of you know that we responded several times to a residence on Horsetail Trail off Jones for a cardiac patient during February and March of 2005. Her medical condition was quite serious, and many days she stated she was prepared to die. She began feeling as if she was a bother to us when calling 911. I called her and re-assured her to call anytime she needed medical attention and that we really did care about her and her condition.