Hays' first motorized fire truck is home permanently thanks to local business owner
By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
But after attention was brought to the possibility of the sale of the truck to someone outside of the area, a Hays business owner decided he could not let that happen.
“It had to come back,” said John Dreiling owner of Dreiling Field Service. “It had to come back to the city of Hays, and we have to figure out how to get it back to the museum.”
Brad Corley, owner of the truck before the purchase, had hoped the truck would return to Hays, and had held onto it for years as the local Firefighters Relief Organization worked to find funding to purchase the truck and for display in their museum on the grounds of the Ellis County Historical Society.
But Corley recently listed the truck for sale in the area, with the hope of generating local interest in purchasing the truck.
“That’s the proudest thing I can do for the truck,” Corley said. “I enjoyed it, I enjoyed working on it ... but I wanted it to be here, because it is your history.”
FRA President Tim Detrixhe was grateful Dreiling made the decision to purchase the truck and get it back to Hays.
“It’s incredible what (Dreiling) just did for the town, the firefighters, the people that are in one way or another connected to that truck,” Detrixhe said. “Who knows, there might be a person in town that is still able to be here because that truck was there.”
When the truck rolled up to Dreiling’s shop Thursday morning, dozens of retired firefighters, family and others gathered to see it.
“To see all of the retired guys showing up,” Detrixhe said, “this means a lot.”
Along with the truck came history in the form of paperwork and items related to the truck, items Corley was happy to share with the crowd Thursday morning.
“I feel good,” Corley said. “I’m excited that the truck’s coming back home.”
As the original purchase date of the truck approaches 100 years ago, the timing almost seems serendipitous.
“One hundred years full circle comes around, that’s no small feat,” Detrixhe said. “It’s kind of humbling.”
Ultimately, the FRA hopes to purchase the truck from Dreiling to be put into an expanded museum on the grounds of the Ellis County Historical Society.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done,” Detrixhe said. “His generosity getting it back here to Hays and making sure that it stays here is unparalleled.”
He said the museum can only display two trucks at a time so if they put the truck in there now, it would not be able to be properly displayed. The museum is home to the second and third motorized trucks purchased by Hays.
“We need to come up with a plan and execute it,” Detrixhe said. “Now with this support and momentum, I think that it’s something feasible.”
After working under the impression any action on the truck may be down the road, retired Hays Fire Chief Roger Rife was surprised how quickly the truck made its way back.
"Right now, it’s pretty scary,” Rife said.
He said he received numerous calls after attention was generated by Corley’s advertisement to sell the truck, but the call from Corley was the best outcome he could have hoped for.
“All of our dreams came true,” Rife said. “John is really a saviour for us right now. We didn’t have the funding. We had worked with different entities to try to get some funding. ... But thanks to John, here it is.”
He said he has found a partner to help secure grant writers and hopes funding will be secured to ultimately purchase the truck from Dreiling and have the truck displayed permanently in the museum.
“It's a great tool to teach the community fire safety and your history and the troubles and the strife that they had to go through in those days,” Corley said. “It’s a jewel that you have. Lots of times you don’t have that anymore. Buildings go, time changes, but to get something that you can get back is incredible.”
The purchase
Dreiling said he had seen the truck during its visit to Hays in 2016 and knew retired Ellis County Fire Department Chief Richard Schubert, who searched for the truck for years prior to his death in 2018.
He called Corley after he heard they had struggles securing funding to purchase the truck.
“After he told me the price, I said 'sold,' ” Dreiling said. “The main concern was to get it back to Hays, Kansas, because at some point they were going to lose it if they didn’t get it.”
While he is happy to own the truck for the time being, ultimately, he hopes it will end up in the museum.
“Our goal is to get it down to the museum, and let the city of Hays own it,” Dreiling said.
He also said knowing Schubert and his wife, Ruth, creating some personal history with the truck and heard about it for years and knew of the legacy to the city.
While bringing the truck to Hays was exciting for Dreiling, all of the research and documentation such as service manuals and attachments sweetened the deal.
“I'm a history buff, I like original and stock things,” he said. “This thing has so much information. It’s amazing what Brad did.”
The generosity of Corley offering to bring the truck to Hays quickly also pushed the deal forward quickly.
“It happened quick, because the same day Brad said I will bring it to you,” Dreiling said. “He brought it here out of his own goodwill to us.”
During the drop off, Corley also reaffirmed his pledge to donate $5,000 to the firefighters museum in the name of Schubert.
“You don’t find people like that anymore,” Dreiling said.
He also said he is not someone to dwell on decisions like this one.
“I’m a spur of the moment guy,” he said. “The time to buy something is when you see it.”
But he also remains hopeful efforts will continue to get the truck into the hands of the FRA.
“Our goal at this point is to get it back to the museum and let the museum own it,” Dreiling said. “If it comes down to it and that doesn’t happen...they have full accessibility to it anytime. This is why it's back here.”
Either way, he said the truck won't leave Hays.
And based on the response already, he believes the FRA will be able to make it happen as Rife and Detrixhe work to find ways to raise funds to bring the truck to the museum.
He said he guessed he had already had 200 phones calls from people interested in the truck.
In the meantime, he plans to show the truck in the Thunder on the Plains car show, as well as drive the truck in the Fourth of July parade.
“It needs to be taken out so people can see it, it needs to be enjoyed,” Dreiling said.
