By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
Two years after voters rejected a plan to build a fire station on Smokey Hollow Road, the North West Fire District is asking the village of Baldwinsville to allow the construction of a station on the site of the former shopping center at 117 Oswego St.
The building is currently zoned Business District (B-1), so the NWFD must seek the village’s approval of their proposed use of the site. A public hearing on the matter was opened Oct. 19 and continues Nov. 2.
NWFD Commissioner Beckie Wasielewski said the fire district is seeking to buy the property for about $550,000, construct a new Station No. 3 and build an addition onto Station No. 1 on Crego Road. These actions are contingent on the approval of the village board, the planning board and fire district voters.
“We’re hoping that we will have a decision from the planning board by December, which would allow us to have the public hearing in January and be able to vote in February,” Wasielewski said.
The Oswego Street station would replace the current Station No. 3, located at the former Lysander highway garage on Elizabeth Street. Station No. 3 lacks adequate space and has a faulty water system.
The fire district plans to demolish about 60 percent of the existing building on the site, renovating the north side of the building for bunk-in rooms, meeting and training areas, office space and gear storage. Exact site plan details have not been ironed out, but the building’s footprint will be 13,000 square feet.
Wasielewski said most of the fire district’s training occurs at Station No. 1, so the proposed expansion of that station — which voters also rejected in 2015 — would better accommodate the district’s roughly 100 active members.
“The meeting room that we have fits about, I would say, comfortably 30,” Wasielewski said. “So they’re hanging out on the walls, in the kitchen.”
The addition to Station No. 1 would also allow the fire district to lend space to community groups. Wasielewski said Station No. 1 hosted Baldwinsville Meals on Wheels while its space in Canton Woods Senior Center was renovated, and space was tight.
Wasielewski said the fire district has taken to heart the concerns residents expressed about the 2015 Smokey Hollow Road proposal. Many residents raised concerns about traffic, drainage issues and noise pollution from sirens. The new proposed fire station would not have a siren.
“Having it moved down the road into a commercially developed area has taken away a lot of the angst from the community,” Wasielewski said. “It’s not going to interfere with their property. I know there was concern with sirens, lighting.”
Wasielewski said having Station No. 3 on Oswego Street would improve response times. The data the fire district collected for the proposed Smokey Hollow Road station would be comparable to response times for the Oswego Street station.
Currently, the average Station No. 3 firefighter must drive 1.1 miles from their home to Station No. 3 on Elizabeth Street. The average response time is 3 minutes and 18 seconds. Data from the proposed Smokey Hollow Road station would reduce the average distance to 0.7 miles and the response time to a little more than 2 minutes, depending on the time of day.
