Lee County honors public safety employees with firetruck monument

LEESBURG — Dozens of Lee County residents, county officials, firefighters and paramedics gathered at the Century Road Fire Station Tuesday to say a communitywide thank you to the county’s public safety employees through the dedication of a special fire engine and a surplus ambulance that will now serve as a commemorative monument.

“Of all weeks, this is a great week to remember what our public safety personnel do for us as we give thanks for all the many blessings that we have,” said Lee County Commission Chairman Rick Muggridge. “We’re just extremely grateful to the men and women that literally put their lives on the line every day so that we can live safely.”

The location of the firetruck, which was donated by the city of Tifton, was the brainchild of county co-manager Mike Sistrunk, who felt placing the vehicle as a monument to the hard work and dedication of the county’s firefighters and emergency medical personnel would help to remind those public servants how important they are to the community.

“This is for you guys here,” said Sistrunk during the dedication. “This is a dedication from the community to thank you guys for what y’all do to put your lives on the line.

“I say it all the time, and this does include the sheriff’s office too: Y’all leave every morning or every night not sure if you’re coming back home. That’s dedication. I don’t know that I’d want that responsibility. So I appreciate what you guys and women, do for us out here. We all do.”

Sistrunk also mentioned that the firetruck monument was made possible thanks to the generosity of Tifton Mayor Julie Smith and Tifton Fire Chief Mike Coleman, who gave the decommissioned vehicle to the county, and of several other community members, including the fire department personnel who spent their free time refurbishing and cleaning the old engine.

Additionally, area businesses also helped with the creation of the monument as both S&S Concrete and Lee RediMix donated labor and materials to create the pad on which the truck sits.

“This is a thank you from the citizens, from the community, to (public safety personnel) as a monument to them for what they’ve done for us,” said Sistrunk. “And I’m proud to say that all this stuff is donated to the county.”

In addition to serving as a monument to public safety, the firetruck and ambulance have also been refurbished to be used as interactive teaching vehicles, where area students and others in the community can climb inside to see what a real firetruck and a real ambulance look like.

“This is a learning tool for all of our citizens, for the public to be able to come out and explore these trucks and look them over and see what they’re about and to have the children to able to climb in them and sit in them and get that experience to know what it feels like to be a firefighter or a paramedic riding on an ambulance,” said Lee County Public Safety Director Wesley Wells. “It can be a great experience for all of our community.”

Sistrunk added that the truck and ambulance will be accessible to the public seven days a week during daytime hours and that citizens are encouraged to stop by and explore them.

“These truck are left unlocked, the back box of the ambulance as well as the firetruck,” Sistrunk said. “If you want to, come by and maybe just get your kids to take a picture inside the truck. It’s educational as far as letting a young child see the back end of an ambulance so they won’t be afraid of it the next time they see it. It’s not anything scary.

“And the joy. I don’t know of a kid that doesn’t want like to get into a firetruck and have their picture taken. They can crawl in here and get their picture taken. It’s open to the public.”