We’re Just Sitting Here Watching The Factory Come Down

PHOTO: Jodie MozdzerThe constant flow of customers at Carolyn’s Weenie Wagon receive a free lunch-time show every day. 

From the parking lot at the corner of River Street and Route 67, the hot dog stand’s customers look down on the factory site of the Housatonic Wire Co. 

The factory burned down in a fire in September 2010. After more than a year of waiting, clean-up crews are finally removing the charred debris. 

Customers sit in lawn chairs and at picnic tables — some eating hot dogs or Cheetos, some smoking cigarettes — watching the heap disappear. 

It’s bittersweet,” said Carolyn Schumacher, who owns the hot dog stand.

She used to operate on a small patch of pavement in front of the Housatonic Wire Co. building. She moved to the lot next door — at the former Seymour Lumber site — after the fire. 

I’m sad,” Schumacher said. But I’m glad for Alex (Budzinski) that it’s getting done.”

Budzinski, the factory’s owner, was onsite recently watching the clean-up from a lawn chair in Schumacher’s parking lot. 

He brought his wife and his father-in-law with him. 

It’s history in reverse,” Budzinski said. We’re finding little things we never knew were in there. We’re seeing how it was built.”

People can track the clean-up process on the Housatonic Wire Facebook page.

During a recent visit Charlene DeGeorge sat at an umbrella-shaded picnic table with her husband, Milton. 

My sister-in-law’s father used to work in the factory,” DeGeorge said. 

DeGeorge has watched the clean-up almost every day. She and Milton were there in the days after the fire too. 

I think it’s about time,” DeGeorge said. 

They’re going fast,” Milton DeGeorge said. 

Oh yeah,” Charlene DeGeorge chimed in.

Clean-Up

PHOTO: Jodie MozdzerSeymour company Enviro-Guard is cleaning up the debris at the site by loading it into the back of a tractor-trailer truck. 

About two truckloads of material is carted off the property each day, Budzinski said. Workers bring the debris to Ohio for disposal. 

Because of environmental and health concerns with the old factory material, workers wear blue haz-mat suits and masks. 

Air monitoring devices surround the property — including in the parking lot of the Weenie Wagon — making sure asbestos levels aren’t heightened. 

Then workers will move inside four remaining buildings on the site, and work on removing asbestos. 

After two weeks of that work, the four remaining buildings will be demolished, Budzinski said. 

He expects the clean-up to be complete at the end of June. 

Every day it looks a little bit better,” he said.

Article continues after video.

Stories

As workers loaded debris into trucks recently, stories of the factory’s past surfaced among the spectators. 

Schumacher recalled a ghost she was sure watched her from the upstairs window of the factory. 

Budzinski recalled the mice that would poke their heads out of holes in the hardwood floors.

And Schumacher’s mom, Klara Patafio, recalled how everyone in town at some point worked at the factory. 

Patafio worked there some 50 years ago, when it was called Seymour Products. 

She can’t remember what job she held, but said she remembers working on the first floor. 

Mostly the stories come from regular customers of the hot dog stand. 

Schumacher said the demolition hasn’t brought any extra customers. 

I’m really surprised at that,” she said. Alex even cut the bushes down so they could watch.”

Budzinski said the interest has died down after the first week of the demo. 

Generally, people hardly even look anymore,” he said. 

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