Friends and Neighbors: Stahla's years of service include long stint with fire department

Keeping busy has never been an issue for Larry Stahla.

The Kimball resident has been involved in a number of activities over the years, and remains active in many of them today.

"I have been involved in a lot of things. I was very active in the Jaycees when I was young," Stahla said. "Bill Batterton and I were co-chairmen on the Oliver Reservoir project, a time consuming and long project, but it worked out fine. I was chairman of Farmers Day four times, twice in the '70s and twice less than a decade ago.

"I'm the chairman of the Citizens Monitoring Committee for Clean Harbors and have been on that for about 25 years. I've been on the board of adjustment for the city for 25 years, and I taught hunter safety for 40 years for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission."

Stahla was born in 1936 and he was raised on a small farm four miles west of Kimball. He married Kathleen in 1955 and they raised three children. Stahla went to work for International Harvester until the company closed in 1968, and then worked for the Chevrolet garage until 1973. After that, he went to work for New York Life, and he is still connected with the company. During those years Kathleen worked outside the home only when it was necessary, and instead she stayed at home and cared for their three children.

Stahla is currently a member of the Plains Historical Society and for years he has been actively pursuing a historically significant facelift for the underpass, for which a design was recently chosen.

At almost 80 years of age, Stahla is still an active member of the Kimball Volunteer Fire Department. He joined the department in 1980.

"They were and are an tremendous organization and always put somebody first before themselves," he said. "It was something I really wanted to do. It was a little hard to get on the fire department back then, so I tried four or five times before I made it."

Stahla said he has held nearly every office in the department, except for secretary/treasurer and chief, which he said is a lot of work. He added that Bob Nagel is the only longer-running active fireman on the volunteer force, and that is due in part to a car accident in the late 1990s in which Stahla was injured and had to become an honorary fireman for five years.

Stahla chaired a project in 1995 to build an addition that nearly doubled the size of the fire hall, which serves as a training and meeting space as well as houses fire trucks. He said very little tax money was needed for the project, which was almost entirely done with donations and keno funds.

Over the years many things have changed in addition to training requirements, including protective gear, air packs, compressors and equipment.

Being a firefighter requires more than just going to the fires, Stahla said. When he first joined the department, most of the training was handled in-house. Today, more outside training is required and things are much more regulated.

Volunteer firemen do much more than respond to fires. They now participate in fundraisers and community events and they are often first responders called to drownings and accidents.

"If someone gets trapped in a car, we have a very capable crew taking our equipment out and cutting them out of that car," Stahla said.

The department provides and benefits from mutual aid agreements with surrounding departments as well, and Stahla said that if the page goes off there is always a full crew of firefighters that show up.

Firefighters have been busy visiting the schools during fire prevention week, where they show students the equipment, fire trucks and educate children on the dangers of fires.

"Many years ago, it seems like we always had a certain amount of fires a year caused by kids with matches and lighters," Stahla said. "Since we have really gotten active with the fire prevention thing it just seems like we don't have those anymore."

"Dedication is key. It is not just a club, it carries a lot of responsibility with it. The guys we have now understand that and are excellent," he added.