This is the building at 1-3 Main St. in Saranac Lake, owned by the village of Saranac Lake, where the Adirondack Park Agency may move. It is seen here in 2023. (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)

SARANAC LAKE — The Adirondack Park Agency has released a trove of environmental, site and building reports on the 1-3 Main St. property it is considering for a new headquarters.

On Thursday, the agency released the documents through a new online dashboard at tinyurl.com/34ywbj36. The in-depth reports looked at the viability of the site for redevelopment and new development, showing no major red flags in the feasibility of the project.

The reports pave the way for the APA to do further design work on the project, with confirmation of its feasibility.

In 2022, the APA received $29 million through the state budget for a new headquarters. The historic Paul Smith’s Power and Light Company building in downtown Saranac Lake is the “preferred site.” There is no formal commitment from the APA, as it is not leasing the space from the village of Saranac Lake yet. The agency has been pursuing a plan to move its headquarters from Ray Brook to downtown Saranac Lake, a project estimated at $40 million.

The APA is considering renovating the existing three-story building, constructing a new three-story building in the back of the public parking lot on the Lake Street and Petrova Avenue hillside and expanding the existing parking lot to 72 spaces.

Rochester-based engineering firm Bergmann Associates started assessing the 1-3 Main St. site in 2023.

Soil stability tests were conducted to ensure the land can support a second building.

They don’t want to start digging and release metals or chemicals into the air. There have been a number of industries at the site, and health and environmental standards were not the same 100 years ago as they are today.

The building at the intersection of Main Street, Lake Street and Kiwassa Road — on the Saranac River — was built in 1927. From 1903 until 1986, electric and railway companies operated at the site. Polychlorinated biphenyls were used for electric components and semi-volatile organic compounds were used for railways. Neither of these were detected at levels requiring action.

The firm recommended the APA develop an environmental management plan before starting development, to minimize delays and ensure soils are handled properly, if any contamination is discovered in the construction process.

The heavy metals arsenic, barium, chromium and lead were detected at concentrations which do not limit the use of the land. Mercury was detected at levels that do, but are below “Restricted Residential Use.”

The report found asbestos, which was a common building material for years. The village has remediated asbestos at this site in the past. This carcinogen will need to be removed. The APA will pay for remediation of the building if it begins leasing it.

There are three identified underground storage tanks on the site. One was documented as being removed. Another 8,000-gallon fuel oil tank is active and used as a generator fuel source. The third, a 2,000-gallon gasoline tank, has not been documented as being removed, but is assumed to have been removed. The location of any of these tanks is not known.

The reports found no lead in the drinking water.

The website includes two phases of an environmental site assessment; an indoor air quality report; an asbestos, lead-based paint and PCB caulk survey; a survey of lead in potable water; a report on wetlands delineation; a study of threatened and endangered species; and geotechnical reports.

“More documents will be posted as they become available,” according to the APA.

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Project background

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Last year, the village moved its police department, formerly headquartered at the 1-3 Main St. building, to a state-owned former Army National Guard armory on state Route 3. The village is currently planning a combined public safety building for the police, fire and emergency departments. The police were moved from 1-3 Main St. to make room for the APA.

The three-story building, which used to house the Paul Smith’s Power and Light Company, was built by the son of the legendary Adirondack guide and hotelier Paul Smith in 1927.

The name of that company is still engraved on the side of the building. The village bought the property in 1986.

The first and second floors were previously rented to Franklin County for office space. The county moved out after their lease expired last year.

In 2022, APA spokesperson Keith McKeever told the Enterprise the APA’s current building is poorly designed and in bad condition; he didn’t think it would be cost-effective to renovate it for the agency’s needs. The APA has met in a small, 1950s-era log cabin for the last 50 years on a campus 4 miles away from Saranac Lake that it shares with New York State Police and the state Department of Environmental Conservation in Ray Brook, colloquially referred to as “Little Albany.”

“Load-bearing structural beams are rotting. The cinder block foundation is deteriorating. The 18-year-old HVAC system cannot be repaired without removing walls,” McKeever wrote.

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Contention

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There’s been contention over this APA move, though, with different groups of Saranac Lakers writing letters supporting or opposing it.

Of the APA’s 44 staff at the time last summer, 36 were surveyed and a majority either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the proposed move. Some said they were supportive of the move and a chunk were neutral on the issue.

A slew of 62 Saranac Lake leaders, including several former mayors, numerous business owners, clergy members, current and former elected officials, volunteer board members and other community leaders signed a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office in September 2023, enthusiastically calling the move “sensible, prudent and progressive” and urging the state to support it, too.

They said the offices would be an “anchor” for Main Street, putting “feet on the street” while renovating an “underutilized” historic building which needs a lot of work. They said this move would make the APA more accessible and visible, and that the state could potentially partner on the village’s planned geothermal project.

The Saranac Lake Area and North Country chambers of commerce, Harrietstown and North Elba town boards and Historic Saranac Lake organization all wrote resolutions of support for the proposed move.

A group of 19 former APA employees and board members also wrote a letter to Hochul expressing opposition to the move from the agency’s current headquarters in Ray Brook and questioning the transparency and ethics of the process that led to this site being chosen for the new headquarters.

These allegations led to an investigation into APA Executive Director Barb Rice from the state Inspector General’s office, which concluded earlier this summer finding that the allegations were “unsubstantiated.”

The complaint made against Rice alleged that she hired David Plante from Bergmann Associates as Deputy Director of Regulatory Programs at the APA following the study as a “quid pro quo” for a favorable outcome. The report found that Plante was not involved with the study when he was with Bergmann Associates, and that Rice did not act improperly in hiring him. According to a state Division of Budget employee interviewed as part of NYSIG’s investigation, feasibility studies are generally favorable, given that their purpose is to develop a plan that fits within the necessary parameters.

“(U)nless a project is impossible, it is expected that the study will be favorable,” the report states. “NYSIG did not find any evidence that Rice had any direct connection to Bergmann Associates, nor that Rice’s hiring of an outside entity to conduct a feasibility study was improper, or outside of regular practice.”

NYSIG also investigated allegations that Rice wanted to move the headquarters to Saranac Lake to benefit her family’s furniture store there. The report concluded that the potential move’s distance from Ray Brook to Saranac Lake was so minimal that it would not impact employees’ spending habits and that Rice had said her family’s store would not bid to furnish the new headquarters.