Welcome to The Museum Report. Since the July/August summary, I can add that our grass seed has taken hold and is being mowed. The Missouri Department of Transportation has issued a permit to the Foundation permitting us to remove tree growth along the north side of the I-70 right-of-way which blocks the view of the museum when traveling eastbound. The significance is the trees that border the two properties do not belong to the Foundation, so the permit and permission process was required. The first cutting and likely many more to follow started on August 27. Cutting and removing 300 feet of trees will take some time.
It is perhaps symbolic that Labor Day weekend will also include a workday at the memorial and museum properties on September 4th with over half of the board signed on for some hard labor. We have also continued discussions with a company that expressed an interest in assisting the museum project. At the time of this article, it is hopeful but not confirmed. By next time I will be able to confirm and what that will look like or if it did not materialize. I will just have to call it a work project for now. I continue to hang my hat on the May/June magazine article by Gail Hagans and agree, “Let’s finish this project.”
In continuing with our introduction of your Foundation Board members, the next two people are also two very long-serving people in the Missouri fire service, and both are tied with the office of the State Fire Marshal. They are Bill Albus, retired investigator, and State Fire Marshal Tim Bean.
William “Bill” Albus, Fire Chief of the Little Dixie Fire Protection District (LDFPD) started with them as a volunteer in May 1978. He became assistant chief in 2003, and fire chief in July 2019. Bill started his regular job in law enforcement with the Audrain County Sheriff Department in 1980 and moved to Mexico Public Safety in 1982. Bill was hired as an investigator with the State Fire Marshal in 1990, retiring in June 2019 to become a full-time fire chief. During his time Bill received the coveted Harry Hansen Professional Fire and Fraud Investigators award. Bill has been involved with the memorial from its beginning and was at the groundbreaking on September 18, 1998. He served as the line-of-duty death family/department escort since the first Sunday service and dedication on May 18, 2002, through 2019.
Bill was also one of the four people which helped in organizing the Saturday night Candlelight Service the following year and provided primary support to that program ever since. Bill oversees a three-station department with 40-volunteers and loves hunting and fishing. Bill was officially named to the Foundation in May 2021.
J. Tim Bean, our State Fire Marshal is very well known by most but perhaps I can provide a few details you may not be aware of. In 1984 Tim started with three organizations at the same time. His regular job began with the West Plains Police Department but he also started as a volunteer with both the West Plains Fire Department and the Howell County Rural Fire Protection District. Go big or go home, right! This comes as no surprise to those who know him well as your State Fire Marshal.
Tim worked as a West Plains police officer until 1994 when he accepted the full-time assistant fire chief position on the West Plains Fire Department. Tim was named fire chief in 2001, a position he held until appointed as State Fire Marshal in February 2017. He got that call while at Winter Fire School. Tim was also involved with the Foundation groundbreaking, bringing a truck from West Plains. This represented the South corner of the state theme that day (N, E, S, W) with Kingdom City being the center of the state. Which it very nearly is, by only a few miles.
Tim oversees a State department of 70 full and part-time staff and loves anything outdoors. His wife Judy has her article in the FFAM magazine and travels extensively with Tim throughout the state. The State Fire Marshal’s Office holds a permanent seat on the Foundation, so Tim became a Board Member in February 2017.
If you need to contact me for questions or have ideas to share regarding the museum project call 314-709-0760 or email keith.smith@warrenton-fire.org. Thank you for your time and especially your support. Talk with you again in sixty days.
FFAM
