MONROE - Every nail was pulled and every piece of metal was carried sheet by sheet to its designated pallet.
About a dozen volunteer firemen spent the weekend starting to deconstruct buildings at the corner of Aebly Road and Wisconsin 69.
The three buildings are located on land purchased by Menards corporation for its new store. Menards donated the buildings to the MERIT Center. MERIT stands for Monroe Emergency Response Inter-agency Training.
MERIT is a joint project of the Monroe Fire Department, Blackhawk Technical College and the business and citizens of South Central Wisconsin, providing training to emergency services and private industries.
Firefighters will need several more weekends to finish the project. Crews will work to get the three buildings down by the June 15 deadline.
"Menards has not said why we have to have them out by then," Fire Chief Daryl Rausch said.
The metal siding and wooden frames will be taken apart and stored on the MERIT Center site in Monroe's North Business and Industry Park on the northeast side of the city.
Rausch said the buildings will be reassembled sometime next summer.
The MERIT Center site is now undergoing road construction and water and sewer installation, Rausch said.
Fire Chief Daryl Rausch said the buildings represent a value of $70,000, if the Center would have paid for the materials and labor to construct them.
"We are salvaging everything we can, so we can reuse it," Rausch said.
Rausch said the volunteers have been preparing for the weekend "essentially all week."
Volunteers spent all last week stripping the buildings' interior walls to ready them for take down. Crews began the dismantling process with the southern most building which once was the offices for Northland Building, Inc.
Materials will be stored on pallets, donated by Dennis Stonebeck Wisconsin Pallets. Stonebeck and Bartel's Sandblaster donated the use of their trucks and trailers to transport the building materials.
Ruchti Builders and Precision Drive Control donated the use of their forklifts.
The buildings, considered key features to continued development of the center, will be grouped together on the southwest corner of the MERIT property. One building will become a heated and air-conditioned classroom capable of holding 48 students. The other buildings will eventually house trucks, equipment and training props.
About a dozen volunteer firemen spent the weekend starting to deconstruct buildings at the corner of Aebly Road and Wisconsin 69.
The three buildings are located on land purchased by Menards corporation for its new store. Menards donated the buildings to the MERIT Center. MERIT stands for Monroe Emergency Response Inter-agency Training.
MERIT is a joint project of the Monroe Fire Department, Blackhawk Technical College and the business and citizens of South Central Wisconsin, providing training to emergency services and private industries.
Firefighters will need several more weekends to finish the project. Crews will work to get the three buildings down by the June 15 deadline.
"Menards has not said why we have to have them out by then," Fire Chief Daryl Rausch said.
The metal siding and wooden frames will be taken apart and stored on the MERIT Center site in Monroe's North Business and Industry Park on the northeast side of the city.
Rausch said the buildings will be reassembled sometime next summer.
The MERIT Center site is now undergoing road construction and water and sewer installation, Rausch said.
Fire Chief Daryl Rausch said the buildings represent a value of $70,000, if the Center would have paid for the materials and labor to construct them.
"We are salvaging everything we can, so we can reuse it," Rausch said.
Rausch said the volunteers have been preparing for the weekend "essentially all week."
Volunteers spent all last week stripping the buildings' interior walls to ready them for take down. Crews began the dismantling process with the southern most building which once was the offices for Northland Building, Inc.
Materials will be stored on pallets, donated by Dennis Stonebeck Wisconsin Pallets. Stonebeck and Bartel's Sandblaster donated the use of their trucks and trailers to transport the building materials.
Ruchti Builders and Precision Drive Control donated the use of their forklifts.
The buildings, considered key features to continued development of the center, will be grouped together on the southwest corner of the MERIT property. One building will become a heated and air-conditioned classroom capable of holding 48 students. The other buildings will eventually house trucks, equipment and training props.