Lindsey fire station on track for November opening

LINDSEY – Workers at the village’s new $1 million fire station have put stone down on the building’s exterior and are still on track for an early November completion, a Lindsey Volunteer Fire Department official said Tuesday.

Jason Conklin, Lindsey’s deputy fire chief, said workers would be laying down blocks at the new station this week. He said electricians had already completed all of their work on the renovated portion of the old fire station building.

The fire station project is still on schedule, Conklin said, even with some delays due to heavy rain in the past month.

The deputy chief said the masonry work on the new building should take about 10 weeks.

“Basically, that’s a lot of the project,” Conklin said.

State Fire Marshal Larry Flowers, who visited the Lindsey station in April, had expressed interest in coming back in the fall for an open house once the station is operational.

“We’re definitely planning to have an open house for the public,” Conklin said.

Conklin said the department had rented a building on Sandusky County Road 69 to house its fire trucks until the construction of the new facility is completed.

“We’re able to get in and out easily,” Conklin said.

The department started a capital campaign in January 2014 and raised more than $1 million for the new station.

Conklin, the capital campaign chairman, said the capital campaign involved all private donations, with no tax dollars being used to pay for the new building. There were 151 donors who contributed to the capital campaign.

The former fire station building was built in 1897 and had served as a fire station for about 75 years. It had posed a lot of challenges to the fire department, including undersized vehicle bays, an outdated heating system and no backup power system.

dacarson@gannett.com

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