Herkimer Mayor Saves L.W. Bills School Building from Burning

Nearly a week after the Herkimer Fire Department had to extinguish a blaze at Flawless Salon & Beauty Bar they went to work to quickly extinguish a fire at the former L.W. Bills School building in Herkimer.

In a Facebook post authored by Scott Flansburg, he described the incident and how the Mayor of Herkimer took quick action to stop the building from becoming a complete loss. Flansburg says he witnessed Mayor Mark Netti and others leaving the village offices Wednesday night at approximately 7:30PM. Flansburg says Netti noticed the smell of smoke and quickly observed black smoke coming from the back of the building. Netti immediately sprang into action by running over to the fire department to let them know.

Flansburg said the Herkimer Fire Department responded to the call just in the nick of time and were able to extinguish the fire without any major damage being done. Flansburg, who is the founder of the Herkimer 9 Foundation, says he hopes this is a wake-up call to the Herkimer Village Board and the citizens to do something to restore the historic buildings in the village and bring them back to life. That is the mission of the Herkimer 9 Project. Flansburg and the Herkimer 9 Foundation's mission is to "restore the Quackenbush Factory, Masonic Temple, Palmer House, Court House, and hopefully the LW Bills."

In addition to the restoration of buildings in Herkimer, the foundation hopes to create STEM opportunities for students and to bring an American Basketball Association franchise to the village. Mayor Netti is in support of Herkimer 9 and hopefully he will save more than just L.W. Bills school. The Herkimer Fire Department is still investigating the cause of the fire.

Photos From the Fire

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