TIERS seeks funds for new building

CLAYTON — The Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service has outgrown its home on Union Street and is seeking financial help from the community and the federal government to build a new $1.8 million facility.

"We really need more storage space and bunk room for our employees. We've simply outgrown this building," TIERS Director Roland G. "Rolly" Churchill said.

Plans are preliminary and the emergency service has yet to find an affordable property in the village where it can fit a 132-by-60-foot building and a parking lot.

The proposed facility will have a larger garage, more room for inventory and equipment storage, additional bedrooms for TIERS employees who work night and day, larger classrooms and training space for the public and handicapped-accessible bathrooms, among other features.

The emergency service hired Fourth Coast Inc., a renewable-energy consulting firm in Clayton, for the preliminary designs of the new building.

"We partnered with Fourth Coast for this new building because we want a green facility," Mr. Churchill said, adding that the building will use geothermal and solar energy.

Since 2004, TIERS has been working out of the former Wingerath Bros. lumber company building, 100 Union St., which is an old and "energy-hungry" building, he said.

Fourth Coast also will help TIERS apply for a grant and loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development office.

Starting with a "LifeSaver Dance" this week, TIERS will hold several fundraising campaigns to raise money for the proposed building project, which it hopes to complete within three years.

The fourth annual TIERS LifeSaver Fundraising Dance will be from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday at the Clayton Opera House on Riverside Drive.

Musical entertainment will be provided by the Paul Baldwin Blues Band and beer and local wines will be served at the event. A regular and silent auction of donated gifts and a raffle also are planned.

Tickets can be purchased at the door for $25 or in advance for $20 at Kinney Drugs, 822 James St., Reinman's Department Store, 435 Riverside Drive, Koffee Kove, 220 James St., or TIERS, 100 Union St.

For more information, call TIERS at 686-2058.