Father’s Day 2011

Father and son fight fires, crime

 

It all began with the fire department, proud father Curt Pedone said, with his son tagging along to go to the firehouse and eventually becoming the first junior fire fighter in a program that continues to this day.

“I get nothing but compliments about him and I couldn’t be happier,” Curt said.

Curt said he started with Henry Hose in 1976 as a Poultney, Vt. native who graduated from Granville High School.

Three years later in 1979 he started with the Granville Village Police under Chief Keith Sweet starting a career in law enforcement which continues today with his role as Deputy Chief with the Hudson Falls Police Department.

Ryan Pedone said it was the trips tagging along as his father went to the Henry Hose firehouse that hooked him early on the idea of fighting fires along side other volunteers, sharing a vocation and now a police department is something that just kind of happened. “I just always remember my dad would drop what he was doing to go and help other people,” Ryan said.

That sparked something in the teen.

“Ryan would be around here all the time with us, he really wanted to be a member (of Henry Hose),” Curt Pedone said.

His son worked hard and was driven to become a fire fighter, so much so he pushed the department to create a junior fire fighter program with him as the first candidate. “He was the first one and it worked out really well,” Curt said.

“I didn’t want to wait until I was 18,” Ryan said.

Looking back Ryan fondly recalls hopping into the truck with his father to go to a call and ending up in borrowed bunker gear fighting a brush fire in Hartford.

“He never really expressed any interest in police work and I never suggested it, he kind of came to it on his own,” Curt said.

Years later Pedone said he was really proud to be approached by Police Chief Ernie Bassett.

Bassett asked Pedone if he thought it would be a good idea to hire Ryan as an officer.

“It feels good to have guys come to me and ask about hiring (Ryan),” the proud father said. “I was honored when he asked and I told him I think he’ll work out,” Curt said. Although he would eventually transfer to Hudson Falls, Pedone said he couldn’t say enough about the Granville PD and what they did for both men.

More recently Pedone was again approached by another police chief asking about hiring his son.

This time it was in the same department he had worked in for more than two decades.

Now his son is a full-time police officer in the same department.

While Ryan was working in Fort Edward he had occasion to do a little part time work in Hudson Falls.

He impressed management and so when a slot opened up Curt was again getting asked if he thought his son was the right man for the job.

“They liked him enough that he got the job on his own,” he said. “I can honestly say that anything he’s done, he gotten on his own.”

Working together, when it does happen, is actually enhanced by the father-son relationship, Curt said.

“I’m probably harder on him than I am on anyone else,” he said.

Despite that, Ryan knows what he wants and how exacting he can be so it works out for the best.

Roles reverse completely when the two cross the threshold and go into the firehouse. There, Ryan is the boss as Granville Engine and Hose Co. No. 1 and Granville Village Chief.

“It’s a tough balancing act, but we work well off of each other,” Curt said. Only half joking, Ryan said it’s easier at the fire house. Not only is he the one in charge, but fellow fire fighting volunteers sometimes understand the relationship boundaries better than co-workers. “I get it from both sides there,” he said.