A new shed built by South Toledo residents wasn't intended to be a Christmas gift for their local fire station -- the timing just worked out that way.
"It's a real blessing," said Fire Station 11 Lt. Glenn Newman. "I'm very grateful to this Block Watch Group."
John Tantanella, an area Block Watch leader, said he and others from the group wanted to do something nice for the firehouse -- one of Toledo's smallest -- after the fire department did a summer presentation for the group about the work that firefighters and emergency medical technicians do.
They started by providing a meal for each of the three shifts at Station 11, on Airport Highway near Eastgate Road. It didn't seem like enough for a group of people who do so much, Mr. Tantanella said.
"I asked, 'What do you need?'?" Mr. Tantanella said
A shed would be nice, the lieutenant told Mr. Tantanella. It was something the people at the station had been thinking about buying anyway.
Once the Block Watch group decided at a meeting a few months ago to move forward with the project, one resident, Harold Zenk, said the group would build the shed.
"I'm more than thankful to be able, at my age [72], to be able to help them out," Mr. Zenk said.
He asked Lieutenant Newman to measure the how much space would be needed to house the station's lawn equipment. It was 10 feet square, Lieutenant Newman said.
"Harold said, 'OK, we'll make it 10 by 12,'?" the lieutenant recalled with a laugh.
It took about $1,000, donated by the neighborhood's residents and several local businesses, and six days -- three Saturdays and three Mondays -- to nearly complete the shed, which is nestled between two tall trees in the station's fenced-in back yard.
All that's left to do is prime and paint the building.
"I felt very humbled that these people wanted to do this for the station," the lieutenant said. "They're ordinary citizens. It was a community effort and I'm really appreciative and humbled."
The shed houses a couple of lawn mowers, one of them a riding model that the lieutenant proudly said he backed into the shed to inaugurate the new building.
"[The shed] makes it more like home [in the firehouse]. You wouldn't have a lawn mower in your living room," Lieutenant Newman said.
And although the shed is a welcome addition, the process probably meant just as much.
"This is wonderful, where the community and the Block Watch come together," Lieutenant Newman said.
"It's not us and them, it's all of us working together."
The lieutenant and Mr. Tantanella are now on a first-name basis -- they even have nicknames for one another: The lieutenant is called mayor; Mr. Tantanella has been dubbed president.
"I've met some neat people through this," Lieutenant Newman said. "They've enriched my life."
The firefighters, Mr. Tantanella said, "are the equivalent of a veteran. ... They're serving the city continually, and they should be honored for that."
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
