Cabinet installation moves Fire Hall closer to completion

Work on rebuilding and restocking the Ellendale fire hall and city clerk’s office took another step forward on Tuesday, June 23, when cabinets provided by the Owatonna Lowe’s store at a bargain price were delivered and installed.

 

NRHEG graduate and Ellendale resident Jesse Blouin and another Lowe’s employee helped unload and unwrap the cabinets, then get them inside. They were joined by Tim Ward, a fellow Lowe’s employee, and cabinet designer Heather Laney, also from Lowe’s.

 

The trio tackled the mess inside, cutting off plastic wrap and plastic corner protectors. Once those tasks were taken care of, the crew gave the cabinets a quick cleaning and carted them to the brand-new kitchen. Laney took pictures and wrote notes. Jesse Blouin said, “I’ve lived in Ellendale since 1989 and I’ve been with Lowe’s for 14 years, so it made sense that I would be one of the ones helping out here today.” The room the cabinets were being brought to will act as both a kitchen and conference room. A microwave will be delivered later this week.

 

City clerk Dave Engel said, “We’ve been waiting on these for a while.” He looked down at the brand-new fire hall floor and added, “It will be even nicer to have all of the moving in done and all the loose ends tied up, not just here but over at the clerk's office as well.” When the Ellendale fire department received their equipment lockers, there was damage, enough they got money knocked off the final price. Continued Engel, “Yeah, there was some red magenta paint touch up with that as well; they had to bend a few pieces and fix a few things. But it’s all good now; everything works. We’ll get there.”