Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company #1 has purchased the vacant former Hawleyville post office and adjacent land at 30 Hawleyville Road (Route 25) from the Housatonic Railroad Company, Inc.

Hawleyville Fire Chief John Basso said last week that the sale occurred on September 12.

Real estate documents for the transaction do not list the sale price. But based on the amount of town conveyance tax paid in the purchase, the sale price for the building and about three-quarters of an acre was $180,000. The site is in the Hawleyville Center Design District (HCDD) zone.

The fire company’s firehouse is at 34 Hawleyville Road, about 175 feet northeast of the former post office.

The fire company plans to demolish the dilapidated former post office later this year, Chief Basso said. After demolition, the area now occupied by the former post office would initially serve as a parking lot, he said.

The circa-1924 wood-frame structure served as Hawleyville’s post office until February 2009, when its postal operations were transferred to the town’s main post office at 5 Commerce Road. Hawleyville postal operations were later transferred to new facilities in a retail center at 23 Barnabas Road in Hawleyville.

The 30 Hawleyville Road site will be cleaned up and its appearance will be improved, Chief Basso said.

“We’re trying to beautify downtown Hawleyville,” he noted. “We want to make the place look nice,” Chief Basso said of the fire company’s desire to improve the area’s appearance.

Hawleyville Center focuses on a cluster of commercial/industrial buildings amid an area with a railroad grade crossing, truss-style high-tension electrical towers, and a rail terminal for building materials.

It was necessary for the fire company to buy the real estate when considering its need for suitable parking, Chief Basso said.

In the past, the fire company had rented the use of the land behind the former post office for parking, he said.

Also, the three-quarter acre site will be a good asset for the fire company in terms of future possible expansion, he said. The company currently has no expansion plans, he said.

The Hawleyville fire company is one of five volunteer fire companies that serve the town.

As part of the real estate transaction, the fire company now owns the driveway that leads to its firehouse from Hawleyville Road. The railroad holds an easement to use that driveway for truck access to its adjacent building materials terminal.

The fire company negotiated with the railroad for 15 months before coming to terms on the property’s sale, Chief Basso said.

“We’re trying to secure our future,” he said of the acquisition, noting the fire organization has built many additions to its firehouse in the past.

Owning the real estate provides the fire company with more options in terms of its future, he said.

The property acquisition has boosted the unit’s morale, he said.

In the area east and northeast of the firehouse, the railroad operates its building materials terminal known as the Shepaug Reload & Distribution Center, a facility which generates much tractor-trailer truck traffic.