OTHELLO - Adams County Fire District 5 is breaking ground on a new monument honoring volunteers.

The monument will honor fallen, past, present and future volunteers from the department. The ground breaking was at 220 South Broadway in Othello.

"It was one of those things that we were just throwing back and forth," Volunteer Lt. Steve Gardner said. "We had the original fire bell in the city. It was returned to us after it had been given to a volunteer who had been chief. The family called us and asked if we would like it back and if we could use it. Our estimate is that the bell is close to 100 years old."

Once the district received the bell, it took about two years to design and raise money for the project, Gardner said. The monument will consist of several basalt columns, supporting a granite plaque inscribed with the names of volunteers.

"If you start looking at the calendar it feels like it will never get done, but we're digging dirt in two days," he said. "We've done two spaghetti feeds. We've got brick sales going on. We're going to cover the ground around the monument with two sizes of bricks. People from the community have been buying bricks."

Gardener said they chose the basalt pillars since they are simple to maintain, but look nice.

"It's a really neat material to work with," he said. "It's heavy but it will look good ... It's coming together a lot faster than I hoped. When you start you don't know how it's going to be received, but it's come together pretty well."