SARANAC LAKE — The village board rejected a grant which would have funded a step toward installing a fire tower at Ward Plumadore Park in a 3-2 vote on Monday, after much discussion and input from the public.

The idea of having a publicly accessible, recreational fire tower in the top level of the park on the corner of Broadway and Bloomingdale Avenue has been debated since the park got a couple hundred thousand dollars as part of the village’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant from the state in 2018.

The proposal got some traction this spring with a permit from the Adirondack Park Agency and a grant from the Franklin County Office of Economic Development and Tourism which would have covered almost one-fifth of the estimated $60,000 project cost. The county office is funded through the 5% occupancy tax levied on every hotel or vacation rental booking in the county.

It would have provided $20,000 to cover the full purchase of the fire tower itself — $10,000 from the county and a $10,000 match from the village. This village money had already been allocated for the park through the village Community Enhancement Fund, which distributes $10,000 to a project each year.

But on Monday, Trustees turned down the grant, with opponents saying they like the idea of a fire tower, but feel the location is wrong, or that the process of funding it was being done wrong and that they wanted more planning before dedicating taxpayer money toward it.

The vote was disheartening to advocates for the tower, who felt it would be a unique, “decidedly different” tourist attraction and experience for locals. They said the tower could provide an all-ages “mini-mountain experience” at an intersection which Ward Plumadore Park’s design consultants identified as the busiest in the Adirondacks.

Mayor Jimmy Williams and Trustee Sean Ryan voted to accept the grant. Trustees Matt Scollin, Aurora White and Kelly Brunette voted against it.

To read more about the board’s previous discussion of the fire tower, go to tinyurl.com/2kwctrdj.

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Debate

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The fire tower project got support from all three of the village’s advisory boards as well as the Community Enhancement Fund Committee

Arts and Culture Advisory Board Chair Kirk Sullivan said people have been asking about what they can put in the upper terrace of the park for years. The space doesn’t make sense for anybody right now.

“Finally this park will have meaning and functionality for everybody who has been wondering what that will be,” he said.

Ryan said the village has made some mistakes in planning that park and he was glad to see a proposal that would finally give it a purpose. His one hang-up was the total project price. He supported the grant, but said the village shouldn’t spend more money to install the tower until there’s a solid plan. If the village chooses a different location, he said they’d already have a tower.

Scollin said the more he heard about the tower, the more excited he was about having one in the village. But he still couldn’t wrap his head about why they would put it in Ward Plumadore Park. Both he and Brunette said the idea is cool, but that location is not the right spot for them.

White said the board should not put themselves on a financial course without making sure they want to go that way. She felt the grant was “putting the cart before the horse.”

The advisory boards were proposing to find other grants to cover the rest of the cost of the project.

But White felt they shouldn’t “piecemeal” the funding together with grants. She suggested doing it as a capital project, which involves more planning.

Brunette felt there were too many unanswered questions and questioned if Ward Plumadore Park was the right place for the tower.

Williams said he appreciates the work the advisory boards do and their input. He felt the board appoints their members for a reason. Brunette and White are ex-officio members of the Downtown Advisory Board and the Parks and Trails Advisory Board, respectively.

Williams said he was “disheartened” they didn’t raise more concerns earlier.

He felt it would be an “awful shame” to have an idea, a grant and the support of the advisory boards but turn back. He apologized to the people who were planning the tower project.

The fire tower at the park was initially proposed as being part of the DRI project, along with other ideas like a sculpture garden. But these enhancements were beyond the DRI budget’s scope, so the previous board decided to potentially revisit them later.

In 2024, the Community Enhancement Fund Committee decided to focus its efforts on improving Ward Plumadore Park. In 2025, they decided to focus on the tower.

White felt the advisory boards were not unanimous in their support of the project.

Williams and White both felt the process of discussing this project and grant could have been handled better.

Village resident Denise Figueroa said she and her 9-year-old love the idea. She was frustrated that worrying, debate and hesitance seem to stall village projects.

“We always come up with obstacles,” Figueroa said.

She felt people were passionate about the idea, so the village should do it.

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The tower

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The tower would have been an Aermotor MC-39 which had been used for fire observation in upper New Hampshire. It has a floor height of 33 feet. The peak of the cabin is 43 feet.

It would have been purchased from Bloomingdale resident David Vana, a leading expert in historic fire tower restoration who has restored and helped install 70 of them across the U.S.

Vana said it is basically impossible to fall off of one of these towers with the safety upgrades the village would have added.

“You’d have to make an effort,” he said.

Sullivan said the tower would not be compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act, but the park itself is fundamentally non-ADA-compliant because of the steep grade of the land.

Sullivan said the tower would increase the village’s insurance by $149 a year and was estimated to cost $250 a year to maintain.

Because the ideal height for the tower would put the roof peak above 40 feet, the village needed a permit from the Adirondack Park Agency. Any structure more than 40 feet tall is subject to APA approval, even in hamlets, the least restrictive land classification in the park.

The permit was issued on Jan. 23, with APA staff finding that the tower would be consistent with land use plans and overall intensity guidelines in hamlets and would not have an undue adverse impact on natural, scenic, aesthetic, ecological, wildlife, historic, recreational or open space resources.

The permit lasts for five years from its issuance.