As you can see and hear if you click on the few seconds of video above, work has resumed at the Courtesy Corner Shell station in Albany after having temporarily ground to a halt.
As station owner Ronald L. Smith told me last week, there had been a hold-up in the project to replace the station’s underground tanks because of a missing permit. But the details were somewhat obscure and remained so today, at least to me.
The city of Albany building department had issued two electrical permits for lighting and wiring at the station. Last week I was told at the department counter that no general building permit had been applied for, though one was surely required. This afternoon, development services manager Matthew Ruettgers told me that the work at the station required no further city permit, and any permit directly related to the fuel tanks would have been a state function.
From Smith, I heard tonight that getting all permits had been the responsibility of the contractor. He told me his son, Taylor, had talked with the contractor. And things evidently had been straightened out, since the work has resumed.
This afternoon, as the noisy video shows, a pump was in use to clear out a deep excavation where groundwater had filled the bottom. Elsewhere on the site, a couple of men were working to fix a piece of heavy equipment.
The activity was good news to the station owner and his customers. Smith, who has owned the station since 1962, told me earlier he hoped to reopen in November. Let’s hope that he’ll be able to meet that goal. (hh)
The way the station looked this afternoon.
This is may favorite, go-to gas station. I sure miss it and hope they get back open soon!