City dedicates Hilz complex

As Pilot Point Mayor Chad Major spoke to start the dedication ceremony, the family of George Hilz stood, beaming.

Hilz, who is now the namesake for the George W. Hilz Public Safety Annex, served Pilot Point was the mayor under whom the city made the jump from an all-volunteer department to a paid-career department.

“We went from a volunteer, a pure volunteer fire department to a full-time service fire department [with] a mixture of volunteer as well as full-time firemen,” Major said. “Let me put you in a place of public service. That’s an awfully lonely place to be when you’re making that kind of a change in a small community.”