The Saranac Lake Village Board is planning a public meeting on March 28 to introduce the community to its vision for a combined police, fire and rescue services building it hopes to build at 33 Petrova Ave.

Before that meeting, it is essential the community understand some facts.

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History

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For over a decade, Saranac Lake has been exploring ways to expand the facilities housing our public safety services: Police, fire and rescue. A 2012 study commissioned by the village detailed the inadequacies of the buildings housing the three services. In collaboration with service personnel, the study’s authors projected the future space required by all three services in order for them to best serve the community: Police required 6,067 square feet of operating space and the fire and rescue squads together needed 17,500 square feet. The study considered several options to address those needs, solutions which would combine services in a single 23,567 square foot building as well as solutions to expand the service facilities separately.

Last March, the Saranac Lake Village Board agreed to purchase an empty lot behind the current firehouse at 100 Broadway. When combined with the firehouse and neighboring rescue squad parcels, the new lot increased the village owned property at the site to 1.31 acres, or over 55,000 square feet of buildable space — an area large enough to accommodate the needs of all services.

Since last April, under Mayor Jimmy Williams, the village board has changed course radically. A new consultant was hired to address the need for expansion. The firm, Wendel Five Bugles Design, determined that 55,000 square feet was inadequate for the needs of the combined services. Instead, they have presented the village with designs for a combined public safety building covering nearly 69,000 square feet, almost three times the future size requirements projected in the 2012 study. To accommodate a single building of that size the village acquired the parcel of land containing the former St. Pius X high school, a location that would move the services away from downtown to the the western edge of the village.

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Size

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A nearly 69,000 square foot building, if moved a block closer to downtown, would cover 5% more than the Red Storm’s Wilson/Raymond football field (goal post to goal post) with bleachers and concession stand added on. It is bigger than the 24,000 square feet refurbished Saranac Lake Civic Center and the next-door Rotary ball field combined. Four of Tupper Lake’s 15,000 square foot combined police, fire and rescue building (completed in 2016) would fit in its footprint.

The largest combined police, fire, and rescue project listed on the Wendel Five Bugles’ website, a 35,600 square foot public safety building, was designed for Holden, Massachussets, a community with over four times our population covering over 12 times our geographical area.

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Cost

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Trustee Rich Shapiro said last month the cost of this project is in the $20 million range. The village has so far refused to release communications from Five Bugles to confirm this figure. The reason the village board would even conceive of a project with such a massive price tag may have something to do with the campaign stop last May of Rep. Elise Stefanik, who arrived in town unannounced for a photo op at the firehouse with Mayor Williams and and others. Trustee Matt Scollin, an advocate for the new services project, is the former regional director of the congresswoman’s Glens Falls office. Currently, Saranac Lake’s assistant treasurer has been tasked with submitting a member item request to the congresswoman’s office for a federal appropriation to cover some or all of the project cost.

Even if the up-front cost is completely underwritten by U.S. taxpayers, Saranac Lake will still be stuck with annual maintenance costs on a nearly 69,000 square foot, mostly flat roof structure that will burden village homeowners and taxpayers long into the future.

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Longterm consequences

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Beyond the staggering budgetary consequences of this project, the prospect of permanently removing the police headquarters from downtown requires serious consideration and public discussion. In a village that relies on tourist trade in its commercial core, where the focus of activity–from concerts to sporting events to political rallies to the farmers market to Winter Carnival events–is at the foot of Main Street, the presence of a downtown police station is vital. The solution to the space restrictions at the department’s headquarters at 1 Main St. is right next door: The village-owned and under-utilized Power and Light Building at 3 Main would offer the department over 7,000 square feet of additional space for expansion. It would also enable direct public access to police personnel for the first time in years, as well as proximity to the Harrietstown Hall courtroom.

Fire department personnel have expressed a preference to expand their facility at their present historic location.

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Conclusion

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The needs of Saranac Lake’s emergency services for expanded facilities are real and immediate. The solutions to the needs as addressed in the 2012 study are at hand. They have been rejected or ignored by the village board in favor of a vastly inflated, wasteful project. Our community needs to seriously question the underlying assumptions driving this project before we commit to a mistake we may regret for generations.

The public meeting to discuss the project will be held March 28, time and location to be determined.

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Mark Wilson lives in Saranac Lake.