Jason Volunteer Fire Department to add memorial garden
By Steve Herring
Published in News on January 31, 2018 5:50 AM
The Jason Volunteer Fire Department is searching for people who used to live, or who still have family, in this small rural Greene County community just north of LaGrange.
The department is building an addition to its nearly 60-year-old station that will include a memorial garden and walkway. The addition will be a four-bay building, and a breezeway will separate it from the existing station.
To assist with the project, the department is selling bricks for $50 each to be placed in the walkway that will be constructed between the old fire station and addition.
It will be a permanent place to memorialize the people and history of the community, said Edwin Hardy, president of the Jason Volunteer Fire Association.
Donations are being accepted as well.
"We are trying to locate people who used to live in the area," he said. "We have a lot of people who did live in that area who live around Goldsboro now.
"Of course around LaGrange, too. So that is what we are trying to do so that we can send them the information."
The department is mailing letters to Jason area residents. The letter includes a form to order a brick.
The bricks can have up to three lines of text with up to 20 letters per line in capital letters only.
All proceeds will go toward the construction of the addition, and any remaining funds will go to future projects.
The building is expected to be completed by late spring or early summer.
An open house and a Jason Community Reunion will be held in conjunction with the department's 60th anniversary celebration once the project is completed.
Hardy said he hopes to make it a daylong event.
"If it (reunion) works out we are going to try and do it annually and invite everyone to come back," he said. "A lot of people have moved away from the community, and they are still alive. Everybody just gets busy and doesn't have time to visit with people anymore. But it is always good to see people."
The department is located in Greene County situated near Lenoir and Wayne counties and provides mutual aid to both counties.
"I can stand on my front porch and see parts of all three counties," said Hardy, who has been with the department for nearly 50 years. "The building that we are in now, we have been in it since about 1961. It only has two bays, and trucks are getting bigger, taller and longer.
"We have three trucks now, and we can only get two in the station. I'm having to keep the other (a rescue equipment truck) at my house."
The department has been talking about building for some time, he said.
Hardy, who has been in the building business for many years, is donating his time to do some of the work including the grading, drainage and walkway.
For more information, or to purchase a brick, call Hardy at 252-560-8539 or send email to hardyconstr@gmail.com.
Also, checks made payable to the Jason Volunteer Fire Department may be mailed to Jason Volunteer Fire Department, c/o Edwin Hardy, 7933 Hwy. 903 South, LaGrange, NC, 28551.