The Rockville Volunteer Firefighters’ Association (RVFA) held a potluck dinner Saturday evening at the fire station near Oconee Springs Park to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Coincidentally, just over 40 local citizens attended, including Putnam County Fire Department firefighters, volunteers from PCFD Station 6 at 310 Rockville Road, community leaders, and several local residents.
The event officially opened with a brief description of the station’s history, beginning late in May 1985, when resident Bill Barulsen approached the Putnam County Commission with a suggestion to form a volunteer fire department to serve the Rockville/Oconee Springs region.
Approval came within a week on June 4 that year, and initial plans called for a station to be built near the intersection of Rockville and Spring Roads on Georgia Pacific-donated land (where the present station resides). Still, utility costs prodded Barulsen to ask county commissioners if it could be located at Oconee Springs Park instead.
That request was granted on October 21, 1985, and three days later, local residents gathered at the park to learn about future plans and what would be required of them to establish a volunteer fire force. The first official RVFA meeting took place on November 6 that year, with Robert Carter named as the first Rockville fire chief, Robert Corley as president, Reggie Haslett as vice president, Marjorie Corley as secretary and treasurer, and Woodrow Logan and W.O. Hooks are both named as members at large.
Additionally, 30 local residents signed up that same day to undergo volunteer firefighter training.
The new Rockville Volunteer Fire Department’s first building was situated near where the current Edgewater Events Center sits at Oconee Springs Park, and remains in use today as an equipment shed after being transported in 2006 to the county-owned Uncle Remus Golf Course in Eatonton.
That same year, RVFD relocated to its present location and opened on September 23, 2006, coincidentally on the same plot of land envisioned by Barulsen 20 years earlier.
Current members of the RVFD executive board include President Linda Burroughs, Vice President Carolyn Gray, Secretary Kim Jeffcoat, Treasurer Dale Nevius, and Member at Large Deirdre Sapp.