Guest Speaker: Gene Ege
The biggest piece of the Sycamore Fire Department's history is close to being fully restored; now, the volunteers who are helping to preserve a historic 1923 Stutz fire engine, want to finish the job by getting it running...and finding a suitable place to put it on display.
Retired Sycamore Fire Chief Gene Ege is one of the many current and former SFD members who have worked to restore the truck; it was in use until the mid-1950's, and kept by the department until it was auctioned off in 1966. It passed through several owners, including a fire truck collector in Wisconsin who refused to sell it back when Ege discovered it there around 1986. He died soon after, and it was acquired by another collector in Indiana; he offered to sell it back for $16,000 -- no less -- and Ege was joined by others in the community in raising the funds to bring the Stutz home.
That was in August 2001; 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina a few years later, caused fundraising efforts to languish, and the truck sat in storage. But in 2013, the effort to put it back in its former state was renewed; Jerry Didio at Marty & Sons Bodyshop offered to do the work, and the newly-formed Sycamore Fire Preservation Co. Ltd. raised the monies needed to put it back into pristine conditon.
Ege says they are now concentrating on getting the engine running; it worked 15 years ago, so he believes it can be fixed. They are also looking to find storage and display space at the Sycamore History Museum; the truck is currently put on display at public events two or three times a year.