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Crews are working on a new 12-lane bowling alley in Liberty. Contractor Marcos Lopez hangs drywall at the new Liberty Lanes, which could be ready and open for business in late January.DAVID DOONAN/For the Times Herald Record

By Leonard Sparks

Published: 2:00 AM - 12/30/12

LIBERTY Bursts from nail guns echoed around the cavernous interior of what used to be the home of Eckert's Drugs in the Liberty Square strip mall.

As a pair of men finished laying strips of hardwood flooring, A.C. Patel sat on a platform stroking strips of wood with a brush filled with a finish.

His broken left foot was wrapped in a protective boot, but the owner of the Kiamesha Lanes bowling alley and Liberty Square refused to be a passive participant in his latest venture: the construction of a new bowling alley in Liberty.

Months after the Fix family ended the 42-year run of Liberty Lanes, Patel and a crew of workers were putting the finishing touches on a new 12-lane alley that, too, will be called Liberty Lanes.

The pinsetters have been installed as well as the lanes as part of a roughly $300,000 makeover. Patel estimates that he will open the doors to bowlers by late January. "As soon as we open we will start some short-season leagues," he said.

The opening will bring some relief to bowlers who were stunned in August when Bobby and Arvilla Fix announced the closure of Liberty Lanes, which the family had run since 1970.

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Liberty to get new bowling alley