TUPPER LAKE - While it could have presented a problem, it doesn't matter now if any of the local police officers are allergic to cats.

The village police department was trying to negotiate a deal to buy the former Pet House and turn it into a new police station, but the village board voted last week to stop moving forward with the plans.

In a 2-3 vote, the board turned down a motion made by Trustee Marty Hughes and seconded by Trustee Leon LeBlanc to enter into an agreement with Tom Lawson, the owner of the building at 190 Main St. that was until recently used as a no-kill cat shelter, to purchase the building.

Jim LaValley, Lawson's real estate broker, said Lawson had been willing to work with the board to give the village a good deal. He would not name the price, at which the Lawsons offered the building but said, "It was at a fraction of what they have into the building."

In addition to the price, the Lawsons also offered to pay to renovate the building and convert it into a police station, creating and moving some walls, adding a fire escape, bathrooms and locker rooms, among other changes.

Hughes said the village couldn't have been approached with much of a better deal.

"I feel it was an opportunity," Hughes said. "It was a lot cheaper than trying to buy a piece of land and build a building."

LeBlanc agreed that he thought purchasing the building would save the taxpayers more money than building a new station. He said it was a shame that the deal didn't go through.

---

Current station

Both LeBlanc and Hughes said they wanted to get the police department out of their current station.

"That place is terrible, and it's been that way for years," Hughes said. "They've been in that dungeon too long."

The cement stairs are dangerous, and when it rains, the department floods, Hughes said.

Police Chief Tom Fee said the current station, in the basement of the village office building at 53 Park St., is antiquated, not accessible to people who are handicapped and doesn't have enough space for things like interview rooms or evidence storage.

It also has bad ventilation. When the department confiscated 20 marijuana plants from a resident in September, the plants stank up the department for a while afterward as they were dried out in storage there.

"It's always never a good time to spend money, but this building is reaching a point where there's a number of issues here," Fee said.

---

Concerns

Mayor Mickey Desmarais said he did not feel comfortable committing to any significant spending right now, since the state budget may pull funding out of the village.

"We weren't willing to borrow a large amount of money out of the general fund, not knowing what the state budget is going to do," Desmarais said.

He and Trustee Tom Snyder also became concerned about how energy-efficient the building is when they did a site visit, so the village had an energy auditor inspect it. Hughes said that while the building did poorly on the inspection, the auditor said the problems were all fixable.

Those fixes were part of the renovations Lawson offered to cover, but Snyder wasn't satisfied. He said the original contractor who was responsible for the problems was the one Lawson offered to use, which Snyder said killed the deal for him.

"That contractor made a mess of it once - why should we trust him twice?" Snyder said. "That was enough for me to say no to the deal."

Snyder said he believed that although the village was getting a good deal to begin with, it would end up spending too much money in the long run on the building.

Hughes said the village has a code enforcement officer, Pete Edwards, whose job is to oversee those types of projects, and he trusts Edwards to not sign off on a building project if it's not up to code.

Desmarais also said he was unsure of the building because there was no garage and no room to expand on the property if the department grows in the future.

Despite Desmarais's concern about the lack of a garage, Hughes said one could be built at some point in the future.

"You don't need bells and whistles," Hughes said. "You need a functional building, and what they have right now is not functional."

---

What's next?

Desmarais said the board is exploring at least one other option for a new police department, but other board members said they did not know whether anything would pan out any time soon.

But Fee said he thinks the board will come through before too long.

"The board is aware that we have problems with the station, and I assume that they're trying to address this, and I have faith they will," Fee said.

Hughes said he feels like the issue was just one example of the board's unwillingness to move forward.

"I'm sick and tired - every time we try to make a move, everything's going to be picked apart," Hughes said.

As for the building, LaValley said he now plans to put it on the open market and try to sell it.

---

Contact Jessica Collier at 891-2600 ext. 25 or jcollier@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.