How a road got its name

Bill Gaudette had been a volunteer fireman "Back East," in his hometown of Windham, Conn., eventually becoming the department's chief. That was before he and his wife, Terry, also a volunteer firefighter in Windham, were smitten by Tucson's weather while visiting family here in February of 1979.

They moved that fall, opening a remodeling business and eventually building a house in Honea Heights. That little neighborhood is now in the shadow of Gladden Farms in what is now northwest Marana.

But Marana was just 2 years old then and to most Tucsonans was still just "the last exit with a Circle K before Picacho Peak."

It didn't have a lot of things, and one of those was a fire department. Nobody else seemed to mind much, at least not enough to do anything about it, until the Gaudettes came along.

Conn. brigade saved home

Terry Gaudette says she and Bill became volunteer firefighters when their house in Connecticut caught fire and the local brigade saved their home. Their sense about the need for a fire department came with them to Marana.

Marana's mayor at the time, Ted DeSpain, certainly wasn't too worked up about it. When asked what would happen if a building caught fire, he told an Arizona Daily Star reporter "It would probably burn to the ground."

Yep.

The lack of enthusiasm didn't end there, recalls Terry Gaudette.

In 1980, when the Gaudettes and a group of other backers found a used fire engine and got a volunteer department trained and ready to fight fires for free, the Town Council at first refused to recognize them. The feeling on the council was that the town could be held responsible for the volunteer department's work. And, free fire service or not, the town didn't have the money to insure itself against that liability.

But it wasn't long, a few months later, that the town did recognize the department and the state made it the official fire service provider for the town, says Terry Gaudette.

Bake sales, car washes

Raising the $3,000 down payment for the used 1953 Mack fire engine, $11,500 from a Phoenix dealer, was a monumental struggle, Terry Gaudette says.

There were bake sales, car washes.

Even after they had the engine and the town's blessing, it was a struggle making the payments.

Just two years later the department's truck was on the verge of being repossessed by the Phoenix dealer. Terry Gaudette says they had fallen behind and, with interest and late fees, still owed $10,700. They needed roughly $3,000 to keep the repo man away.

Marana residents Jack Horton and Emma Waples came to the rescue, suggesting that raffle tickets on a side of beef and a freezer to put it in would get some of the townies up off their wallets.

At a buck a ticket, Horton and Waples shook down neighbors for $3,600 — not exactly a windfall considering the payoff and that it took three months. But it kept the repo man at bay while, according to an Arizona Daily Star story at the time, local farmer Ralph Wong secured a loan from Valley National Bank to pay off the rest of the debt at $215 a month.

But there were more financial struggles to come; the volunteer department fizzled out in the late 1980s and the town contracted out for fire service. Eventually Marana was annexed into the Northwest Fire/Rescue District, which bills district residents through property taxes collected by the county.

Saw more crashes than fires

Today, Northwest spends more than the old volunteer department so desperately needed just putting lights and radios in one of its new $300,000 trucks.

Terry Gaudette says the old volunteer department never fought a lot of fires. She says they rolled on more car accidents than fires — a couple of firefighters riding on the department's old engine, the rest going to the scene in their personal pickups and cars.

She recalls some of the Interstate 10 accidents were tough on the volunteers.

"They went to lots of car accidents. One time a couple of guys came back (to the fire house) sick. They thought it was a burned body, but it was a side of beef in the trunk of the car" that burned up in an I-10 accident.

"We tried everything to keep that department going," says Terry Gaudette. And though she doesn't go into details, she says the family paid a personal price for the battle to keep the department going. She says, "in my opinion, (Bill) was neglecting the business to get the fire department going."

Road named in his honor

Bill Gaudette died of a heart attack in June of 1990 at age 56.

Town historian and former mayor Ora Mae Harn remembered Gaudette's efforts and recently asked the current council to remember his service to Marana by naming a road after him. She didn't say "again," but there already is, or was, a road named Chief Gaudette Drive. It's still on the map.

But Terry Gaudette says the sign disappeared a couple of years ago, when some apartments were built next to the road just west of Lon Adams Road near the former Marana Police Department and Town Hall buildings.

Today the road that used to be Chief Gaudette Road is just around the corner from Northwest's shiny new station.

Harn thinks the town ought to remember its past, including the defunct Marana Volunteer Fire Department and its founder.

"You're talking about some people who really worked hard and they did provide fire service for this community on a shoestring for years. And in my opinion, Bill Gaudette was key to that," says Harn.

Harn is leading the planning of Marana's Heritage Park and she intends to include an exhibit dedicated to the old volunteer fire department.

"We're looking for that old fire truck they bought, tracking it down," she says. "We'll put it in our new museum."