While there were people in the community who sincerely believed that the best thing to do would be to tear it down, we recognized that the basic structure was in good shape, and it really just needed to be cleaned up and given a facelift.

It took us three weekends just to clean the trash out of the barn. Observe the following photos of the interior of the barn when we purchased the property. Pictures are truly worth a thousand words, don't you think? This is the kind of thing that volunteers never imagine that they'll get involved in when they step forward.

After we cleaned up the interior, we installed metal siding and painted the roof. We also installed two overhead doors and a walk-through door. We then improved the electrical service.

At 60 x 70 feet, this barn represents 4200 square feet of dry storage space. How many small rural volunteer fire departments can you think of that have this kind of storage and shop space?

Not very many, I'll bet.

We finished it up in November, 2000, except for concrete work. In March 2001, we received an earmarked donation sufficient to pour a concrete floor in the 38 x 70 center area. Our volunteers worked EVERY SATURDAY during April and May doing grade work and forming inside the barn, plus several weekdays actually pouring and finishing the floor sections. We finished the floor in early June.

In August, 2002, we began using the barn to house three reserve trucks along with other miscellaneous accumulations of hose, pipe fittings, lumber, sheet metal, and spare gear, most of which is more or less neatly arranged at various points throughout the interior.