Volunteer fire companies began to incorporate under NY State law as a non-profit corporation for various legal reasons. The Cleveland Volunteer Fire Company became a legal entity in 1952 largely via the efforts of a man who had been elected Chief at a very young age in 1950, Robert Glahn Sr. Bob became a major factor in our department that lasted many years remaining active for over 50 years first as Chief then as President and in various other positions. He essentially held every office we have and did a great job in each one. Along with being a natural leader he was a great source of advice and could always be counted on to steer us in the best direction.
Also common during the fifties was the trend for fire companies to participate in parades and hold annual field days as fund raising events Now it was 1975 and the main street fire station was crammed beyond its capacity. The fire company had been pushing for 20 years for a new station but funding just was not there. So they elected to build a large new building on West St. to both house fire trucks and provide for a bingo hall and social area. Keep in mind that all these changes happened in the first half of the decade. Many of our members at the time later said they couldn’t recall much about the 70’s that they seemed all a blur. No wonder, things were changing so fast you could barely keep track.
The remainder of the seventies was spent in endless fund raising attempts in an effort to make the mortgage payments and in going to fires that began to happen more often because of the energy shortage. As people turned to burning wood in homes the number of fires escalated greatly. We went from having maybe one or two working fires each year to having one or two each month. Our neighbors were just as busy so it seemed sometime that we no more than returned to service from one fire than we were going out to another. One notable daytime fire saw two homes fully involved before arrival of the first truck with the fire threatening the funeral home. This was just before the new water system was activated so we had to work with inadequate water again and the high wind and cold temperatures made for a very nasty day of firefighting.
The 1980’s saw us doing much the same as we had done in the 70’s --- lots of fires. A new Chief was elected in 1982 as John Hinds took office. John increased the emphasis on training and modernized our fire attack methods in two important ways. The first was the use of 2-inch diameter hose to replace our 1.75-in. lines. This increased our standard flow rate per line to 200 gpm. Another change was adoption of 5-inch supply hose replacing the old 3-in. hose. The concept was put more water on the fire faster and with fewer people. At about this time we also adopted a policy of using automatic mutual aid response on our fires. We were among the first to realize that having more people, more water and more fire apparatus on scene faster was a tremendous benefit. This idea really got started by accident. We had a fire on a Saturday afternoon where the homeowner had called for both Cleveland and North Bay because he knew he was on the district line. Both departments arrived simultaneously and began to work. I noted that for first time in memory we could attack, ventilate, provide water supply and do salvage all at the same time as we were always taught we should. The result of this accident was we initiated automatic mutual aid agreements with all of out nearby neighbors that are still in effect twenty years later. The agreement calls for response of at least three additional fire departments on a reported structure fire without waiting for someone to arrive on scene and call for the help. The result has been some great saves on many of our fires as well as those in neighboring districts all of whom have similar set  ups