To the editor:

Kudos to Champlain Valley Educational Services for reversing course and deciding to return 15 acres of land to Clinton County after discovering smarter alternatives to their original school building plans. The cost-effective alternative was overwhelmingly approved by local taxpayers (NBC 5, 8/27/25). Now, if we could only get Saranac Lake Mayor Jimmy Williams and Trustees Sean Ryan and Matt Scollin to be similarly open-minded about the 15 acres located at 33 Petrova Ave., which they are promoting as the only possible option for a combined (fire/EMS/police) emergency services campus.

Although I do not question their sincerity, I am concerned about their unwillingness to consider, or even discuss, viable alternatives and suggestions for the property, and their steadfast but questionable position that all three departments must be housed together. Not surprisingly, their position severely restricts suitable alternative locations within the village. The village board has also failed to keep numerous past promises to ensure transparency, including providing answers to over 200 (board-invited) questions from the public.

Instead, soon after 33 Petrova was acquired, these three gentlemen appear to have decided that the only option for an emergency services complex was to renovate and expand the existing, very dated school building and thereby create an approximately 60,000 square foot campus.

In 2022, their own three-member (fire/EMS/police) task force attended a Station Design Expo in Chicago and reported that a little more than half that square footage was adequate. Regardless, the consulting engineers have creatively stuffed the excess space with things like 20 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, three full kitchens and two kitchenettes.

I’m having a hard time figuring out how our community of approximately 5,000 residents (and shrinking) could possibly need, much less afford, such an expensive and over-sized complex. Some of us are also concerned that, in an effort to fill space and obtain federal funding, the village board could accept federal ICE funds and create an “Adirondack Alcatraz” in our own backyard.

Let’s hope not, but this project is desperately in need of massive funding, and so the threat is real. There is still time for the emergency services project to be honestly and transparently reevaluated and right-sized for our community. Purchasing the 33 Petrova property was a wise decision and I hope that the land will ultimately become an affordable village asset. I also hope that before it is too late our village board will make a much-needed and overdue course correction.

Keith John Murphy

Saranac Lake