Time for some “Then” and “Now” photos! Our current firehouse was constructed in 1940-1941, with our first meeting taking place in the new building, 85 years ago, on May 26, 1941. Over the years we have made several renovations, remodeled some portions of the interior and constructed a new Engine Room addition in 1984.
However, this week, we started our largest renovation in the history of the company – we are replacing the original, 85 year old slate roof! Over the next few weeks you will be noticing our roofing contractor, United Veterans Roofing of Newtown, PA removing the old slate roof and replacing it with a new low maintenance premium metal roof on our 1941 stone building. After this roof is replaced, we then will replace the flat roof on our 1984 Engine Room addition. President Chris Keen commented at our last company meeting, “we certainly got our money’s worth with the old roof and this new metal roof should last us another 85 years”.
We have been planning and saving for this new roof for several years. However, over the past five years, we needed to use some of our savings for some unplanned projects, such as, the need to replace all four of our Engine Room bay doors, because they failed to open during some of our emergency calls and a new furnace which was starting to cost us more money in maintenance repairs.
Our Long Range Planning Committee is currently working on and planning other projects, such as replacing all of our interior and exterior lighting to be LED, replacing some of our 85 year old electric wiring and a new whole building generator.
Most people do not realize that our 100% volunteer company owns our building and property, which means that we are responsible for payment of all of our utilities and daily maintenance of our beautiful building and property. We have applied for a low interest 2% loan to help pay for these current projects and in the next few months, we will be announcing a new Capital Donation Campaign.
So, over the next few weeks, please use caution around our firehouse, during our roof construction project and feel free to stop-by and find out how you can be a part of our 139 year old volunteer organization of People Helping People!
