History

The first recorded meeting of the Columbus Fire Retirees Club (4-Unit) was on June 7, 1978. Ray Beougher was Acting Chairman. The primary reason for this meeting was to get the club organized and nominations were held for the election of officers.

At the July 7, 1978 meeting the first officers of the organization were elected. They were President: Eddie Manns, Secy./Treas.: Tom Sides and Sgt. At Arms: Don Braskett.

In November 1979 our club voted to and became affiliated with Police and Fire Retirees of Ohio, the affiliation is still in effect today.

In August of 1981 the club voted to admit all paid Firefighter Retirees of Central Ohio to our organization. In October of 1982 we changed our name to Central Ohio Retired Firefighters.

In May of 1985 the first trustees of the organization were elected. They were Jim Wolfe, Bert Green and Don Fadley.

In 1986 two members of our organization were elected to offices of the Police and Fire Retirees of Ohio, Tom McDonald we elected president and Henry Reeb was elected trustee.

The first 4-Unit News was published on December 1986. The newspaper is currently published bi-monthly and is edited by John and Judy Cahill, the editors since inception.

Today Central Ohio Retired Firefighters (4-Unit) is a thriving, growing organization with 550+ members. We have a monthly business/luncheon meeting the first Wednesday of each month at 1200 hours at the Firefighters V.F.W., 1591 Lockbourne Rd., Columbus, OH. We encourage retirees from 23 city and twp. depts. within the Central Ohio area to join us. The alphabetical order of depts. are as follows: Clinton Twp., Columbus, DCSC, Franklin Twp., Grandview Hts., Hamilton Twp., Jackson Twp., Jefferson Twp. (Fr. Cty.) Jefferson Twp. (Madison Co.) Madison Twp., Mifflin Twp, Norwich Twp., Perry Twp., Plain Twp., Pleasant Twp., Prairie Twp., Rickenbacker, Truro Twp., Upper Arlington, Washington Twp., Westerville, Whitehall and Worthington.

4-Unit is a fraternal organization. We have monthly meetings to conduct business and socialize, a bi-monthly newsletter, a bi-annual roster, annual picnic and golf league. We also have the more serious side where we, along with our affiliate Police and Fire Retirees of Ohio http://www.pfro.com (who we encourage all of our members to join) sponsor and lobby for legislation that positively affects all fire and police retirees in Ohio.

In the past we have sponsored and lobbied for legislation that put a retired firefighter and police officer on the Pension Board, obtained for fire and police that retired pre-1986 a C.O.L.A. and got the survivors a raise with a C.O.L.A. We currently have a bill introduced that provides for all retirees who retired post 1986 and who elected the C.O.L.A. option to receive a 3% C.O.L.A. no matter what the C.P.I. may be.

If you have any information about our history or any questions you may have concerning this page e-mail us at 4unit@centohretfirefighters.com