State Sen. Betty Little, left, and town of Harrietstown Supervisor Mike Kilroy talk at a meeting Friday on the potential uses of the former armory building and property on state Route 3 in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo -- Chris Knight)

SARANAC LAKE — The shuttered state armory could be the new home of the Saranac Lake Police Department.

That’s one possibility that emerged when village of Saranac Lake, town of Harrietstown and Franklin County leaders met last week with state Sen. Betty Little at the Harrietstown Town Hall.

Meanwhile, the village Board of Trustees held a closed-door executive session Monday to discuss several properties, including the armory and the village firehouse on Broadway.

—

Armory meeting

Village Mayor Clyde Rabideau and village Manager John Sweeney, Harrietstown Supervisor Mike Kilroy and Councilman Ron Keough, and county Legislative Chairwoman Barbara Rice sat at the table with Little in the town hall board room Friday. Paul Maroun, who works as Little’s counsel and is also Tupper Lake’s mayor and a Franklin County legislator, was also there.

Formerly home to a New York Army National Guard detachment, the Route 3 armory closed last fall in a cost cutting move by the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs. The local detachment was merged with the rest of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry, based in Morrisonville.

Over the last few months, Little has worked with the state Office of General Services on a way to transfer the armory building and property to the local municipalities, but it’s proved to be complicated.

Since the armory property is state-owned land and most of it, including the building, is not in the village, it could be considered Forest Preserve land, which means it couldn’t be sold without an amendment to Article 14 of the state constitution, known as the “forever wild” clause. Similar “forever wild” issues have held up the transfer of Camp Gabriels in the town of Brighton.

“One possibility is the village could ask, through a resolution, to annex the whole piece of property,” Little reported to the group. “That would make it exempt from the Forest Preserve land.”

Since learning about that, however, Little said the state Department of Environmental Conservation would have to approve the annexation. The village would also need town approval to annex the land, she said.

“The second possibility is to change the classification,” Little said. “It is administrative agency right now. OGS thought that if we got the (state) Criminal Justice Department, like parole, to take over operation of the building, they would have a small office in it, and then if you’re talking about a police station, you could still go ahead with that.”

Kilroy said the town doesn’t have any interest in the building, but it would like to add some of the armory property to the adjacent Dewey Mountain Recreation Center.

“We don’t need the building,” he said. “(The village) needs it more than we do. We want some of the land for cross-country trails.”

Village officials have previously lobbied the state for use of the building as a new home for the village police and/or fire departments and potential office space. The current police station behind 3 Main St. and the firehouse on Broadway are outdated and cramped for space. Village officials are also looking for new office space, even though they recently renewed their lease for the second floor in the town hall.

Sweeney said Friday that he doesn’t think the armory would be well-suited for the fire department, “because of the location so far up that hill, and the access to it.” However, Rabideau said the building would be ideal for the police department.

“It would be a great location for the police department, and they need it,” he said. “Secondarily, we could move the village offices there. We’ve done some preliminary estimations, and that would require an expenditure (of about $450,000) for an elevator and retrofit of the second floor.”

The armory’s drill hall and an open field on the property could be used for recreation, the mayor added.

For now, Rabideau said the village could lease the space from the state for the police department, but it would ask for annexation. Eventually, the village would like title to the property so it could make improvements that could allow it to move its offices to the armory’s second floor, Rabideau said.

“We’d also like to see the town acquire more land for Dewey, but that’s in their bailiwick,” Rabideau said.

“Whatever we can do to help the village get the building, we’ll do,” Kilroy said.

“The most important thing I can see is the town and village are willing to work together on getting their hands on this land and this building,” Little said. “It’s a good cooperative effort.”

Little said she’d go back to OGS officials and, “for starters,” ask them about the village leasing the armory for the police department.

—

Executive session

In the meantime, Rabideau called a village Board of Trustees work session Monday to discuss five properties: 3 Main St., the firehouse, the village’s Van Buren street property, the armory and a vacant village-owned property between Old Lake Colby Road and state Route 86, near Taylor Rental.

The Enterprise received notice of the work session on Thursday. Village officials then sent another notice on Monday saying it would be held in executive session under an exception to the state’s Open Meetings Law that allows for closed-door discussion of real estate when publicity might affect its value.

“No decisions were made,” Rabideau reported Tuesday. “We have some homework to do. If we were to divulge our actions, it may adversely affect the taxpayer, and the pricing of real estate. We have five options on the table. We’ve analyzed all five. We’ve narrowed down the choices, and we’re going to continue in that direction.”