County's Burn Tower to Receive Upgrades

The Schoharie County Fire Training Site, commonly known as the Burn Tower, in Howes Cave. Photo by Chris English.

By Chris English

SCHOHARIE COUNTY — The place where Schoharie County's volunteer fire departments go for their training is not far from getting some needed work.

At two meetings Aug. 14 and 16, a county committee and the full Board of Supervisors approved a $36,248 quote from Harty Construction Inc. to install fire department-provided materials designed to upgrade the Schoharie County Fire Training Site in Howes Cave, commonly known as the Burn Tower.

"The last time the tower was fixed was seven years ago," explained county Director of Emergency Services Michael Hartzel. "There are classes coming up in October when we will need the burn tower. We have the materials needed, we just need a company to install it"

There was some thought and discussion given to having the county Buildings and Grounds Department possibly do the work. However, with the classes coming soon and that department's plate rather full, officials decided to hire a company that specializes in this type of work to do the installation.

"It seems to be the only company that does this type of work," Hartzel said of Harty Construction.

Harty would have the expertise to do the installations in a way so that carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) are not released as the result of burning for training purposes at the site, officials added.

"Why would we not want professionals to do it?" county Supervisor Alex Luniewski of Wright said.

According to information provided at the Aug. 14 Personnel/Finance Committee meeting, Harty's work will include installing new ceiling panels in the first and second-floor burn rooms, inspect and replace as necessary damaged trims in all live burn locations, installing a new scout monitor, run existing low voltage probe wires to new Scout temperature monitor and other items.

In other actions from the Aug. 16 county BOS meeting, the board approved 2025 pay raises of 2 percent for department heads and non-union employees. The move affects a total of about 50 county staffers currently earning a total of about $1.7 million in salaries, said County Administrator Korsah Akumfi. That means a pay increase of 2 percent would increase county costs by about $34,000.

The Board of Supervisors also approved a reimbursement of $61,980 to the Town of Fulton for the cost of town crews repaving Church Street. That road got heavy use because of a recent county construction project on another road.