Planting a tree and a sneak preview, but mostly a sneak preview

On Friday the Rensselaer Urban Forestry Council (RUFC) dedicated a tulip tree at the new fire station in celebration of Arbor Day. The tree is behind the station on the bank of the retention pond that you can see in the corner of the picture below.

The RUFC has planted about 350 trees in Rensselaer and this year will focus on Angelica Street.

After the brief ceremony the fire chief invited those at the ceremony to tour the almost completed fire station. We entered from the back and one of the first things we saw was the pair of lamps shown below.

 The back of the building has a large kitchen area.

 We then went through a room with tables that will serve as a training room.

 A hallway runs north-south on the eastern part of the building. To the left is the kitchen and the doors on the right will lead to the fire trucks. You can see one of the public restrooms on the left. There are two and both are unisex. One person at a time will use them. Down the hall to the south are offices and stairs to the second floor. To the north and not shown in the picture is more hallway that leads to another stairs and locker rooms.

 Below is one of three offices in the building. The current building has one office shared by five people. From this office one can see the highway in front of the building.

 The southeast corner of the building will have a small museum that will house the two antique fire trucks that the department has.

 Then it was time to go upstairs. There is no elevator. I asked if that would not cause a problem with the ADA legislation. It will not because the upstairs will be a secure location that is not open to the public. One of the highlights was the fire pole. It is the original fire pole from Rensselaer's first fire station. It has been in storage for about forty years but is now back in operation. Although it can be used, I think it is mostly decoration.

 The second floor has a large room that will be used as a conference room. If the day comes when Rensselaer will have full-time fire fighters, this room can be converted into sleeping quarters.

 Below is a picture of the truck bay area from the fitness center on the second floor. There are six doors on each side and the area can hold twelve vehicles. The fitness equipment for the fitness center is being donated by Saint Joseph's College.

 There are several utility rooms on the second floor. This one had the heating equipment.

 There are two heating systems. One pipes hot water through the concrete floor and that is how the truck bay area is heated. Shown below is part of that system.

 Below is the view of the bay area from the west end. The other picture of this area was taken through one of the windows in the wall. The picture above is a close up of part of the reddish strip at the far end. It will be covered by panels.

There is a basement under the office portion of the building but we did not see it. It will only be used for storage.

You can see all of this and much more when the fire station has its open house on June 25. Mark you calendars; the building is quite impressive and you will not want to miss the public opening.