More was cooking than just steak at the last Baked Steak Dinner at the Dresden Fire Department on October 21. The Dresden Fire Department and Village of Dresden celebrated paying off the loan for the fire station by burning the mortgage after the dinner.
A mortgage burning party is a twentieth-century custom that signifies being debt free after paying off a mortgage.
The station cost over a million dollars when it was built in 1998. Dave Longaberger made a huge donation to help to make the new fire station a reality by paying $300,000 dollars toward the cost of the building and purchased the land. $100,000 was raised by the members of the department, and they paid $70,000 for architectural fees. The village took out a loan from USDA for $621,800.
Several members of the community and public officials came together to celebrate including Mayor Dave Mathew, State Representatives Brian Hill and Bill Johnson, April Gibson from the Lt. Governor Mary Taylor’s office, Muskingum County Commissioners Cindy Cameron and Mollie Crooks, and several members of the Dresden Fire Department.
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