BARKER, N.Y. — Officials in the Village of Barker hope to rebuild the village hall, after it was destroyed by fire Sunday night.
Mayor Aaron Nellist says it appears the fire began near the office, then tore through the building. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
On Monday, the smell of burning remains in the air.
Locals here are in a state of sadness.
"I'm still in shock and I think the community is devastated it was a hub of activity and it's extremely upsetting," Nellist said.
That's because this building had a lot of history.
According to the village clerk, it used to be a railroad station.
And for decades has been the village hall and a library -- so there are a lot of memories of this building and hundreds of records are destroyed from assessment documents to election records.
"There's things that are intact but because of the water and things to put out the fire I'm sure they're not going to be salvageable," said Barker clerk and treasurer, Amanda Detschner.
She says the village will have to call the county to get copies of records.
Village operations will now are being run around the corner out of the Barker police department on East Avenue.
"There's computers and things that can be used for the time being but we will have to procure somethings I'm sure it will be a tight space but we'll make it work," Detschner said, "we're going to do everything in our power to just get back to what we had and hopefully not miss a beat."
In talking to the village mayor he tells 2 On Yours Side that the village does plan to rebuild a new village hall however a timeline of all that is still unclear. Nellist says the village has heard from some state lawmakers about possibly getting some state money to help with that rebuilding process, but again a clear timeline of all that is still unknown.