The Slatington Hose Company No. 1 will collaborate with borough workers at 9:30 a.m. Monday to lift and remove the fireman statue on Main Street.

Hose company President Lee Vogel said the cast iron base of the statue has been showing considerable signs of rust over the years.According to Vogel, it is necessary to lift the statue to fully evaluate the damage to the base and brainstorm for the best ways to repair it."Between the statue and base there is a lot of corrosion. We're not sure how to fix it till we lift it," Vogel said.To life the estimated 200-pound zinc statue a small crane or borough backhoe will be used."We have to be very careful lifting it," Vogel said.The iconic statue will be housed in the borough maintenance building until the base is repaired."We have an idea or two on how to do it, but we're dealing with rusting cast iron. It'll have to be reframed," he said."But we won't know until we take it off. There are bolts from underneath the statue and sides," Vogel said."The last time it was removed was when it was hit by a car in 1979. We redid the whole corner then, but it's been neglected for years," he said.The Fireman statue is one of only two in the Lehigh Valley and was manufactured by The J.W. Fiske Company of New York in 1910.Hose Company No. 1's Fireman's Statue has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1981, and has been registered with the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture since 2002.The statue is dedicated to living firemen everywhere, and it is a symbol of service, vigilance and humanity.