While Americans were tuning in to “All In The Family,” watching “Jaws” at the theatres and dancing to “The Hustle” at the discotheques, the Village of Rhineland was forming a new fire department.

The Rhineland Area Volunteer Fire Department had a crew of just six members in its first year in 1975. As it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, the department now has 18 active firefighters and six board members.

The fire department will hold an anniversary celebration event called the Street Dance on May 10 at Rhineland Park. The event will start at 5 p.m. Food will be served, a horseshoe tournament will be held and music will be played by I-70 Overdrive, a band based out of Owensville.

“It’s a chance to give a little back to the community and celebrate 50 years,” said John Noltensmeyer, who is the president of the Rhineland Area Volunteer Fire Department. “That’s a long run for a little rural fire department because we’re still membership based. We’re not a tax- based fire department. We rely on the community and dues paying members.”

Also that afternoon, there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the new ADA accessible playground at Rhineland Park. The park also has a new pavilion, sidewalks to accessible parking, storm water drainage and safety fencing along Highway 94. In 2021, the Village of Rhineland received a $101,260 grant from the National Park Service through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to make improvements on the park.

Noltensmeyer said the fire department began in 1975 thanks to many donations from the Rhineland community.

“They came up with the money and did a lot of the work themselves,” Noltensmeyer said. “Then, through fundraisers and the fire departments auxiliaries over the course of the years, they continued to raise money to buy more and better fire apparatus. Also, people began to remember the fire department when they passed. We were the beneficiary of a couple of really good requests that helped the department a lot at the time and continues to help up to this day.”

Noltensmeyer said in its first year, the fire department was rated by a company called Insurance Services Organization, which had a criteria to judge the quality of fire departments.

“Of course, when they first started out, given the limited equipment and limited training, Rhineland was a 9/10 fire department,” Noltensmeyer said. “They had a fire truck and some people, but that was about it. Over the years, with purchasing newer and better equipment and people taking training, we’re now a Class 5/6 fire department. For a small department like this, that’s really impressive because usually you need to have to be a quite a bit bigger department to get a 5/6 rating.”

During its 50 years in business, the fire department had to go through issues with flooding since Rhineland is located near the Missouri River. In 1993, many businesses, including the fire department, had to deal with the massive flooding that hit the Rhineland area.

“We had 18 inches of water in the meeting part of the fire department, which required us to station trucks and equipment over what is now the Katy Trail,” Noltensmeyer said. “We just kind of parked the equipment around where we can find a building to put it in. They assisted the entire time of the flood with helping move people out, going in and washing out and cleaning out houses.”

Noltensmeyer leads a board that includes assistant chief Shad Noltensmeyer, vice-president Dustin Winkelmann, secretary Colt Engemann, chief Curt Korman and treasurer Larry Englert. Noltensmeyer has been with the fire department since 1983. Two years ago, he became president of the board.