STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The Sawtooth Rangers are inviting the community to toast Bill Ratliffe Thursday as they unveil Bellevue’s newly restored Fire Hose Hand Cart.
The restoration celebration of the historic fire hose hand cart will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 28, outside the Bellevue Museum at 226 N. Main St. There will be a chance for photo ops and a toast with sparkling cider.
Ratliffe, a board member of the Sawtooth Rangers, reconstructed the broken wheel spokes on the cart after the Sawtooth Rangers ponied up the money to have the wheel parts remade by a Pennsylvania company.
With funding from the Rangers, he then sanded the cart and wheels down to bare wood and metal before painting them with two coats of primer, three coats of red paint and three coats of sealer so they can weather whatever weather comes as motorists pass by on Bellevue’s main street.