Steel frame going up for new fire station
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

Pictured at right, the steel frame of the Bath Volunteer Fire Department rises along Est Morris Street in the Village of Bath.

BATH - A snow storm may have swamped the area last week, but construction crews on East Morris Street were still able to take delivery of a load of steel girders for the Bath Volunteer Fire Department's new fire station.

Workers for R. J. Taylor Inc., the general contractor for the project, are now erecting the frame of the building, according to Bath Fire Chief Mark Conrad.

"I didn't think it would make it," Conrad told The Courier. "I drove by, and that made us all very happy."

The project continues in spite of reservations by the New York State Department of Labor the project may violate state labor laws. The Labor Department last year advised the fire department the project requires the payment of prevailing labor wages, arguing the department is using public funds to repay a $2 million dollar federal loan.

The fire department warned the prevailing wage requirement would add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of the project. It argued in return it is an independent entity of the village and will repay the loan out of revenues collected from the municipality for emergency services.

Conrad said he continues to receive requests for information from the Labor Department.

Barring any interruption in the construction schedule - and with a little help from the weather - the fire chief said the building may be finished by summer.