The Rippey gymnasium addition erected for the Rippey Consolidated School in 1959 is being re-engineered to house the Rippey Fire Department. The City of Rippey received funds in the amount of $80,000 in April of 2018 from Grow Greene County to re-purpose the Rippey School gymnasium into a fire station.
The attached photo shows the hard wood basketball court being removed to be used in a home remodeling project. The center court jump ball area is to be placed on one of the walls, while the flooring will be used throughout his house.
The gym, stage, and vocational agriculture addition was to the north and east side of the original brick school, and the west addition was for elementary classrooms and the third floor made room for a new musical department.
In 1962 the Rippey School merged with East Greene, and the three communities of Dana, Grand Junction and Rippey were together until 2014. At that time East Greene merged with the Greene County Community School District.
The Greene County School District at their May 20, 2015 meeting sold the building back to the City of Rippey for $1.00. Middle School basketball games were played at the gym until 2017.
The City of Rippey completed a grant request to Grow Greene County for allocated Wild Rose casino funds to re furbish the gym into a Fire Station.
The first order of construction was to change the roof from a flat roof, which was leaking to a pitched roof. The attached rooms that served as housing for buses originally, and then classrooms also received a pitch to avoid continued leakage issues. The bathrooms, and locker rooms in the former vocational agricultural classroom area will remain intact as a storm shelter for residents living in the City of Rippey.
Construction crews have cut into the south wall and overheard doors, complete with automatic garage openers have now been installed.
The “lobby” entrance to the building is yet to be removed, but will soon be completed to allow the fire trucks to access the building.
The remodeling of the building has been overseen by Mayor Dan Brubaker and the Rippey City Council. Mayor Dan has provided the photos of the process.
December 29, 2018
Submitted by
Mary Weaver
