Manlius village trustees last week voted to approve a $10.8 million bond to cover the costs associated with the proposed new fire station project, including purchasing the land and construction of the facilities. The bond is contingent on a referendum vote by Manlius village residents, which has been scheduled to occur on March 18.
“Over the last few weeks, we’ve been working hard to get all of this stuff together,” Manlius Mayor Paul Whorrall said during the board’s Jan. 27 meeting. “I really want to thank everyone who worked to get everything together for both the project and the public meetings about it.”
The board also has scheduled three public information meetings about the plans for the project:
✓7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3 at Eagle Hill Middle School in LGI, 4645 Enders Road, Manlius.
✓7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb, 26 at Manlius Fire Station No. 1, Stickely Drive, Manlius.
✓9 a.m. on Saturday, March 7 at Manlius Village Centre, 1 Arkie Albanese Ave., Manlius.
The village has spent nearly seven years — and more than $440,000 — working to improve the fire station situation by building one new, state-of-the art station to replace the two outdated stations currently in use.
The new station, to be located on the corner of Enders Road and Route 92 in the town of Manlius, would be an approximately 20,000 square feet building on a 4.1 acre parcel on land to be purchased by the village — although the land is outside the village limits and in the town.
The new station would become the hub for all Manlius fire personnel.
An increase in taxes would be necessary to pay back the bond, which has a life of 30 years, Whorrall said. Because there are so many factors in the project, there was no way to definitively calculate the tax rate effect the bond would have at this time, said Village Clerk Martha Dygert.
Dygert said the village has recently changed ambulance billing companies, which will hopefully mean more revenue to the village. Dygert said the tax rate could be anywhere between $48 per $100,000 assessed home value at the more expensive end to $32 per $100,000 assessed home value depending on how much revenue the new ambulance billing company will help bring in.
The village of Manlius Fire Department serves fire districts in the village of Manlius, the town of Manlius and the town of Pompey.
At the Jan. 27 meeting, the village board approved a negative State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) declaration, meaning the new fire station would not have any significant impacts on the natural environment, traffic, stormwater mitigation and noise level to the area.
The referendum vote was originally supposed to be held in August 2014, but was postponed due to a dispute between the village and town of Manlius officials over which group should be the lead agency in the project. In October 2014, the DEC made a ruling in favor of the village.
If the bond is approved, construction for the fire station would begin in the fall and would replace the two existing stations, located on Stickely Drive and Pompey Center Road, which were in need of repair, according to Whorrall.
The bond referendum for Manlius village residents will be held from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, at the Manlius Village Centre, 1 Arkie Albanese Ave., Manlius.
Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].
