Ground breaking ceremony for the new firehouse

There was a good attendance for today's ceremonial groundbreaking for the new firehouse. The event began with remarks from the fire chief, Kenny Haun, who recounted the history of the fire department in Rensselaer. The first three vehicles that the department used, one from the late 19th century, one from the 1920s, and one from the 1940s, are now owned by the department. Until 1975, when the present fire house was built, the fire station was located where city hall is today.

 The mayor spoke briefly and recounted the hurdles that the project had encountered.

The sign had the names of companies that were vital in the process. The architects were Synthesis, the civil engineers were HWC Engineering, the structural engineer was LHB, the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineer was Vector Consulting, and contractor was Tower Contracting. Not on the sign was the financial consultant who played an equally important part in getting the project to this stage.

Then it was time for the ceremonial shovel of dirt.

From left to right, Brian Egan head of the Renssealer Redevelopment Authority which will be the legal owner of the facility, Mayor Wood, Kenny Haun, city council member Scott Barton, fire department member and head linesman for the city electric, Lenny Larson, and city council member Ernest Watson Jr.

I talked to the the head of operations for Tower Contracting and he said that the first stage of construction would be to move dirt around on the property. The site of the building needs to be built up and much of the dirt for that will come from what will be the retention pond.

On another water-related topic. this morning the thunder of the passing storm woke me at 4:00. At that time the rain was in a thin band stretching from Rensselaer to the Illinois border. The storm changed shape and blew up south and east of Renssealer before heading away. We in town got only about a quarter of an inch of rain, but south and east they seemed to get a lot more. I drove to Monticello this morning and the fields east of town were much drier than when I was there a week ago. Coming back via Remington, I saw a lot of water in fields south of town. However, that water drains into the Iroquois below Rensselaer.

The Iroquois is below twelve feet so it is no longer in flood stage. Some of the cemetery roads are still under water, As I write this the river is at 11.78 and it looks like it will be below 11.5 feet by the end of the day. The flow as I write this is 1390 cubic feet per second, which still easily beats the previous daily record flow of 998 from 1968.