COOPERSTOWN BAT

FACILITY IN FLAMES

By LIBBY CUDMORE & JIM KEVLIN • Special to AllOTSEGO.com

HARTWICK – A long-vacant sawmill in this hamlet that Cooperstown Bat Co. reopened just a couple of weeks ago to manufacture billets for baseball bats was destroyed this evening in a smokey blaze.

Fire departments from Hartwick, Hartwick Seminary, Cooperstown, Milford, Fly Creek, Mount Vision, Laurens and Edmeston responded to a 6:20 p.m. call and were still pouring water on the structure at the end of Popular Street as the sun went down two hours later.

By then, flames were no longer evident, but billows of smoke were coming out from under the eaves of the low-slung red building, about 50 yards long.

The burning structure was situated perhaps 100 yards cross-lots to the south of Cooperstown Bat’s main manufacturing building in the former depot on Route 11.  There are about a dozen single-family homes on Poplar Street, but none were close enough to be in danger.

Bystanders said the company’s owners, Tim and Connie Haney, were on site, but on the far side of the building, so unavailable for comment.

People reported the building had been under renovation for perhaps a year, and that lumber to make the billets – rough wood pieces that then are carved into bats – had been delivered in recent days.

Sitting on his porch, Scott Losee said he’d been out back and saw flames snaking up the southwest corner of the building almost to the roof line.  He flagged Racael Monroe and she called 911.