Penn Forest Township Volunteer Fire Co. No. 1 is celebrating the grand reopening of the recently remodeled facility with an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18.

The renovations have taken the better part of the year to complete, but now that all is done, they want to show it off.A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. and throughout the afternoon, there will be tours available.The roof over the engine room was replaced, the parking lot was repaved, and interior renovations were made to insulate, modernize and update the kitchen and bathroom facilities to meet emergency shelter standards so that the hall can serve the community during emergencies."Penn Forest Township Volunteer Fire Co No. 1 received a grant of $630,000 through State Speaker Keith McCall," said Tom Whiteley, fire company president."While we needed to redo part of the roof and repave the parking lot, the biggest issue was modernizing the hall and kitchen area to make if more comfortable for people who will need to use this facility for emergency housing," said Whiteley. Whiteley said that the fire station has an emergency generator and that the facility has been used in the past to house people during a power outage during an ice storm."We thought why not make it better for people who are stuck here for several days to allow them to shower," he said. "We also wanted to upgrade the kitchen to make it easier to mass feed people. Now we can cook for a large amount of people."Whiteley said that he believed that the fire company took suggestions from the Red Cross to upgrade the kitchen facilities. Along with the renovations to the roof and repaving the parking lot, the fire company upgraded the interior and insulated the building to make it more efficient to heat and cool."Gone is the dark paneling that was popular in the 1970s," said Whiteley. "We went with a brighter, lighter look that actually makes the building look larger, even though it is the same size as before."Whiteley said that the fire company is excited to finally be able to say that the building is open again."We have had our bingo shut down for about a year," said Whiteley. "We are hoping to resume games in the new year and we are ready to accept bookings for banquets and weddings and so on."Whiteley said that the hall can seat a maximum of 299 people for banquet service."I've only been president since 2010," said Whiteley. "A lot more people have put a lot of effort into this project than me, but we are all pleased to say that the hall is open again."