An interview with Saranac Lake Mayor Jimmy Williams in the Feb. 14 Enterprise, “Paying for 33 Petrova,” raises more questions than it answers.

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Price

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The community has not seen current plans, but the cost to build a proposed emergency services complex at 33 Petrova Ave. was estimated over two years ago at $27.5 million. The Producer Price Index Final Demand for Construction has risen 2.61% since then.

The project’s price tag notably excluded contingency costs. The original price was premised on access for fire and rescue vehicles directly north to George Lapan Highway. Since the village ruled out crossing wetlands in favor of westward access along Bay Boulevard, the additional cost of widening and fortifying the 900-foot residential drive to accommodate heavy emergency vehicle traffic has not been figured into any public cost projections.

Other contingencies not covered in the original price include any environmental remediation required on the site (the village has yet to address an oil tank rupture in the basement of the former Pius X building in 2020), mitigation of the streams that flow around and beneath the flood-prone property, and costs of relocating the Hot House garden center, a promise made to the proprietors two years ago.

The additional costs of these and other aspects of the project must be weighed against any savings realized by design modifications.

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Funding

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The article referred to $775,000 in grant awards from NYSERDA which it claimed can be used “village wide.” This is inaccurate. A grant for $500,000 submitted in June 2023 by CHA Consultants on behalf of Saranac Lake was for designing a 3-phase geothermal heating/cooling system of loops focused on downtown. While later spur loops would eventually extend to the high school and Petrova middle/elementary school, any future benefit to the proposed emergency services building in the form of marginally decreased operating expenses would have to be paid for separately. Another $100,000 of the NYSERDA grant money mentioned in the article is for energy efficiency upgrades to village-owned buildings at 17 Main St., the waste water treatment plant, and the Department of Public Works only. The money is not easily transferable.

State grants come with stringent reporting obligations. Playing shell games with NYSERDA awards would not only risk loss of the money but would invite an audit of village finances from New York’s Office of State Comptroller.

Mayor Williams suggests contributions might come from surrounding communities. With budget cutbacks cascading downward from Washington to Albany to county seats, any commitments which the mayor hasn’t already nailed down for his project may become scarce, particularly when more economical alternatives haven’t fully been explored. On a broader scale, anyone expressing “100% confidence” that significant funding from federal and state budgets will be forthcoming should disclose that funding strategy.

In the absence of assured external revenues the village will need to resort to raising taxes (limited to a maximum of 2% per year) and/or budget cuts. Mayor Williams needs to specify how much he is willing to cut from which village departments, services and staff. He also needs to explain how the operating and maintenance budgets for an expanded emergency services facility will factor into the overall budget picture after construction is finished.

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Design

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Mayor Williams has maintained for two years that the 67,233-square-foot programming need established by the consultant, Wendel/Five Bugles Design, was a non-negotiable requirement for the facility. News now that the contractor is working on a design eliminating 9,000 square feet of programming space may come as a surprise to village residents. The new reduced programming need should reopen consideration of space available at 100/110 Broadway. Any designer/engineer who cannot fit a 58,000-square-foot need into a, 84,000-square-foot space is not trying hard enough.

The newly proposed egress route along Bay Boulevard raises questions apart from cost. The road crosses privately-owned property and is bracketed on one side by the main sewer line and on the other by a drainage trench. Buried utility lines service the four lots on the south side of the road. Moreover, Bay Boulevard crosses the village boundary. Road improvements and a re-engineered intersection with Edgewood Road will require approval from Harrietstown. Proponents of this new route have remained silent on how the change will affect emergency response time. Basic navigation software shows an additional three minutes by car to return to the point on Lapan Highway where vehicles would have exited the complex on the original design. Delays may be greater for heavier apparatus.

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Bottom Line

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Projects as large as the emergency services complex proposed for 33 Petrova Ave., particularly in communities as small as Saranac Lake, require thoughtful and precise financial planning before anything else. Omission of a financial impact analysis in the contract drawn up by Wendel/Five Bugles in response to the Request for Qualifications issued by the village (the village required the analysis in its RFQ), should have raised a red flag at the beginning of the process.

The outsized project envisioned by Mayor Williams was unrealistic even before the hope of complete federal funding fell through 18 months ago. Everyone acknowledges the need of our first responders for expanded and modern facilities. The solution must be one which we can accomplish in a timely manner and it must be affordable. Mayor Williams owes it to area residents — particularly village taxpayers who will bear the heaviest burden — to provide an accurate and detailed financial plan for his vision before another dollar is spent.

“We won’t know until we build it” is not an acceptable approach.

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Mark Wilson lives in Saranac Lake.