Ligonier firefighters secure ownership of 85-year-old borough building at auction

There was little drama during Saturday’s auction of the former Ligonier Borough Municipal Building.

Ligonier Volunteer Hose Company 1 made the winning $315,000 bid that will allow the fire company to keep using it.

Winning the public auction of the 85-year-old building at 112 N. Fairfield St. was a big relief for the fire department’s members, fire Chief Corey Blystone said.

“I’m glad we had the winning bid, because we had no Plan B,” Blystone said moments after the auction ended in Ligonier Town Hall.

Borough police left the two-story, stone building in early 2019 when the force joined with neighboring Ligonier Township.

Other borough offices are housed in Ligonier Town Hall, about two blocks away on The Diamond, that was completed in 1969.

Blystone said the fire department already has been housing two of its vehicles — a utility truck and an antique 1927 American LaFrance Cosmopolitan engine — in the building.

Unity auctioneer Mark Ferry said some interested parties who toured the building during the weeks before the auction inquired whether the fire trucks would “go along” with the winning bid.

“They are not part of the sale,” Ferry quipped prior to the start of the auction.

Blystone said the department uses a second-floor meeting room for department training sessions and allows outside groups, such as local softball programs, to use the meeting space.

“We really didn’t know where else we’d go,” Blystone said.

There initially was one other live bidder at the auction, who dropped out after the fire department bid reached $315,000. Ferry also said there was an absentee bidder whose bid fell short of the fire department’s winning bid.

The identities of the other bidders were not disclosed.

Borough officials decided to auction the building because of its maintenance costs.

The borough did explore selling the building directly to the fire department for a nominal amount. But under such a transaction, the borough code requires that the property revert to the municipality once it is no longer used by the firefighters.

The reversion clause made that option unacceptable for the department, Blystone said.

With the 5% “buyer’s premium” added to the winning bid, the department will wind up paying $330,750 for the building.

The fire department’s main building — directly across the street — houses three other department trucks.

Prior to the auction’s start, Ferry said a bell on the roof and a civil defense siren, housed in an adjacent cupola, will be retained by the borough.

Ferry also auctioned off a 26-acre property the borough owns off Nature Run Road in Ligonier Township on Saturday.

Alexander Dick of Ligonier submitted the winning bid among four bidders of $305,000 for the property.

Dick said there are no plans to develop the property but bought it because the Dick family owns adjoining property.

At one time, the acreage had been considered for development of an auxiliary water reservoir, but that project never occurred, according to borough officials.