Fire station plan returns to planning board

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

The North West Fire District has cleared a major hurdle in its attempt to construct a new Station No. 3 on the site of a shopping center at 117 Oswego St. (formerly 80 Smokey Hollow Road). At its Nov. 2 meeting, the Baldwinsville Board of Trustees unanimously approved the fire district’s application to build the station in the area zoned Business District (B-1).

The proposal has not stirred the level of public outcry seen in 2015, when voters rejected the fire district’s request to build in a more residential area on Smokey Hollow Road.

“I have not heard drastic concerns — they’re details,” Mayor Dick Clarke said of the current proposal.

Those details, village attorney Bob Baldwin said, will be ironed out during the planning board process.

Two residents — Maureen Bordwell and Brian Corrigan — spoke in favor of the revamped Oswego Street/Smokey Hollow Road proposal at last Thursday’s public hearing. Another resident, Penney Garcia, said she was in favor of the new fire station but had concerns about parking and pedestrian safety. Garcia owns a bottle and can return in the mall next to the proposed site.

“My only concern is the parking and how we’re going to find enough spaces with the new firehouse there for the growing populace of my business and the ladies next door, with the Style Works [salon],” Garcia said.

Garcia said the parking lot turns into “a sheet of ice” in the wintertime and is difficult to navigate. She said she was concerned about the number of parking spaces earmarked for local businesses in the site plan.

Village Engineer Steve Darcangelo asked if Garcia’s lease guaranteed parking spots, and she said she didn’t know off-hand, but parking can be scarce between her business and the salon.

“The [location] is so good because it’s easy to get in and out of so you’re not competing for spots, unless we cut back the spots severely,” she said. “I don’t want to make it any harder to get in and out of there.”

Jeff Budrow, an engineer with Weston and Sampson, said the site plan includes eight to 10 parking spaces for patrons of neighboring businesses.

“It’s a lot more favorable for businesses,” Budrow said of the new proposal.

Garcia’s second concern was pedestrian safety. She said patrons of Smokey Hollow CrossFit and Impact Martial Arts could be at risk if they are jogging outside while first responders are entering and exiting the site. “It makes me so nervous,” she said.

“We may have to make a recommendation to the karate studio that they only jog on the parking lot that goes to the mall and not the parking lot that’s attached to the fire station,” Clarke said.

NWFD Chief Tom Perkins read a statement outlining the district’s need to replace Station No. 3.

“It is imperative to have a fire station in the village, and especially on the north side of the village,” he said. “During the incipient stage of a fire — the first two to three minutes — the fire can triple and quadruple in size. In the new construction today they grow faster than that.”

Perkins said the district considered other sites: the 2015 Smokey Hollow Road site was shot down by voters, a property on Oneida Street was surrounded by traffic congestion and a proposed site outside the village was actually in the Plainville Fire District.

He said the NWFD had considered purchasing the Oswego Street/Smokey Hollow Road site in the past, but the cost was prohibitive. Now, the price has come down and the district has deemed the site the best fit for its needs.

Deputy Mayor Bruce Stebbins said he wanted to include language in the resolution clarifying that the station will not hold social events, prohibiting the construction of outdoor training facilities and limiting the number of bunk-in volunteers from Onondaga Community College to four.

Stebbins also said he wanted to make sure the student volunteers would not disturb their neighbors.

“Having been an unsupervised college student myself… I played basketball at 2 a.m. with the music playing as loud as possible and there was no one to tell me I couldn’t do that,” he said. “Generally speaking, I bet everything will be fine, but the reality is they’re college kids. You need to be cognizant of that and maybe have some sort of way reassuring the community that you will address that issue if it becomes an issue.”

Clarke said he will work on drafting a letter to the planning board outlining the village board’s specific concerns. “Good luck,” he said to fire district representatives in the audience.

The fire district will return to the planning board this month, and the district is aiming for a February vote.