A modular home built by Herkimer BOCES students is pictured in the snow in Ilion

HERKIMER – The Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Building Construction program has built a house for a local resident every year since the 1981-1982 school year, and this year will be no different.

The selected homeowner pays the cost of materials and transportation of the house, but the labor is provided for free by high-school juniors and seniors under the supervision of Building Construction instructor John Martin.

If you’re interested in receiving the house, attend an informational meeting at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1, in the Building Construction classroom at the Herkimer BOCES William E. Busacker Complex, 352 Gros Blvd. in Herkimer. Enter the classroom directly by going around to the back parking lot. If you have any questions, contact Herkimer BOCES Building Construction instructor John Martin at 315-867-2600 or jmartin@herkimer-boces.org.

At the meeting, information discussed will include procedures, house styles, the purchasing of materials, the construction date, criteria for applying, moving the house and other owners’ responsibilities.

A lottery drawing will be scheduled for a couple of weeks after the meeting to determine who is selected as the recipient of the 40th house built by the program. If multiple people apply and attend the lottery, runners-up can be selected for subsequent years.

The house, which will be an about 1,500-square-foot, one-story ranch, could be delivered to many locations in and surrounding the Herkimer BOCES region. Previous houses have gone as far from Herkimer BOCES as the Thousand Islands, Lake George and south of Cooperstown.

The house will be constructed during the current 2020-21 school year –with completion by June 2021. After a client is selected, meetings will be scheduled with the future homeowner to discuss the floor plan and the basic design of the house. The design must meet approval of the Building Construction program curriculum. It must be a single story and can have up to three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The dimensions are 26.5 feet by 58 feet.


A modular home built by Herkimer BOCES students is pictured in the snow in Ilion

An informational meeting about how to have a house built for you with free labor by Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Building Construction students is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct.1, in the Building Construction classroom at the Herkimer BOCES William E. Busacker Complex at 352 Gros Blvd. in Herkimer. Pictured here is the house Building Construction students built in the 2012-13 school year after it was delivered to Ilion.