SARANAC LAKE — Some members of the public have accused the village of not releasing a conceptual floor plan for its much-debated proposed emergency services building, a floor plan they say should have been publicly available. But village officials say they’ve never received the floor plan themselves, and that the accusations are “inaccurate.”
Village residents are calling for more transparency in the planning process in general. This floor plan became an inflection point, though it has deviated into exaggeration. There’s been accusations of “closed doors,” “silence” and lying. The floor plan was released by a village resident over the weekend, after they obtained it through a Freedom of Information Law request to a state office.
Mayor Jimmy Williams said the village itself has not seen the floor plan yet, though. He had seen a paper copy similar to it at a walk-through of the building with the consultants a few months ago, but it was a “working document” that was not finalized. He said the emergency services building project is a slow process, but that does not mean the village is hiding anything.
Village resident Mary Thill knew the conceptual floor plan should be finished, because of a timeline outlined in the village contract with its consultants at Wendel Architecture, Engineering, Surveying and Landscape Architecture. She submitted a FOIL to the village. It was not able to be fulfilled, with the village clerk saying that the village had not received a new design, plan or concepts.
So she FOILed for it through the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, where the conceptual plan had been submitted for an environmental report, and got it within a week.
The plan can be found at tinyurl.com/yp7yu4s5.
Some village residents have been frustrated that they’re seeing the floor plan because a resident made a records request to a state office, instead of getting the plan from the village.
Williams said the plan was released before the village even saw it.
“I find that surprising,” Thill said. “It’s ready for some permitting review, but it’s not ready to share with the village?”
She has requested the village certify it does not have the floor plan, a provision in the FOIL law.
Thill said she doesn’t see any transparency in the process. The building is a very expensive project, and the village taxpayers will likely be paying off the loans for the work for years.
Thill said she has strived to not be an “opponent” of the project, but a critic of the process. The community needs more information to have an informed discussion about the project, she said.
Williams said he was disappointed the Enterprise was reporting on “inaccurate and misleading Facebook posts” and called the posts “distracting.”
Blog posts labeled it “The Plan You Weren’t Meant to See.”
Others accused Williams, Deputy Mayor Matt Scollin and potentially the village manager of lying to their colleagues, members of the emergency services community, the Enterprise and every village resident.
“It is a very slow process to get all of this right and allow Wendel the time to do their due diligence,” Williams told the Enterprise. “I wish it were faster. But just because it is not, does not mean that the Village is hiding things from its residents. There will be more public information meetings. There just has to be substantial information to relay.”
This phase of the project is taking longer than expected, he said.
“It shouldn’t take FOIL requests for trustees — or the public — to see the latest version of a multi-million-dollar project we’re being asked to approve,” Trustee Aurora White said on social media.
White feels Wendel should have given the floor plan to the village before it was submitted to any state agencies. She feels there are lots of parts of this process that have not been transparent.
There’s a difference in preferred management style between Williams and White. Williams has trust in Wendel as the experts, and lets them do their thing without village micromanaging. White wants the village to be more involved, since this is a massively expensive project for the taxpayers.
“It’s our tax dollars that are being spent,” White said. “If you leave the decisions up to a contractor that you’re paying to design based on a percentage fee, they’re going to design something large and lofty so that they can make more revenue.”
Leadership at the fire, rescue and police departments have been working with Wendel to cut down the footprint of the building by around 10,000 square feet, removing anything that was not determined to be essential, according to Williams.
Wendel sent the conceptual floor plan to the state Historic Preservation Office for an environmental report. This was not a finalized or engineered version, Williams said.
The floor plan was supposed to be released alongside a new site plan and a comprehensive project cost estimate.
White, after seeing the conceptual floor plan, is concerned about the cost to build and maintain the floor plan presented.
“It just seems like it’s really oversized,” she said. “Yes, they need new facilities, but it should be appropriately sized and appropriately costed.”
She is concerned by the number of kitchens, dorm rooms and bathrooms and does not know why the plan divides separate spaces for firefighters, drivers and EMS crews.
The plans show 18 dorm rooms for firefighters, drivers and EMS; 17 toilets and three kitchens.
Cost and scope of the project
The village needs new facilities for its volunteer fire department, volunteer rescue squad and police department. Everyone in town agrees on that. There’s been fierce debate over where those facilities should be. The village has proposed a unified complex for the three at the site of the former St. Pius X High School at 33 Petrova Ave., putting all emergency services in one building.
This plan has been contentious with neighbors and some others in the community, who from the beginning have opposed the size, cost and location of the building.
Williams says they are working on responsibly budgeting for the project.
The total cost is currently estimated at $27.5 million. The village will have a down payment of grant money and saved-up fund money to put toward that cost, and would then pay off the rest over a long period of time through loans called bonds.
Currently, the village is anticipating having between $7.3 and $8.1 million for the project on-hand, depending on how certain villagewide grants are spent. That would leave around $20 million for the village to take out loans for.
Williams has said he is “100% confident” the village will get more state and federal grants and said efforts are “ongoing.” He said they need a footprint for the building before pursuing most of these funding opportunities.
The previous village administration earmarked $2.5 million for the project in 2022. Williams said that account has accrued $200,000 in interest so far and sits at $2.7 million now.
So far, $700,000 has been spent from this account for the purchase of the property and the first phase of design. This leaves around $2 million left of village money set aside for the project.
The village received a $4.5 million federal grant through a funding request submitted by North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik and $200,500 through a Volunteer Fire Infrastructure grant through the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. It has also received two grants from the state Energy Research and Development Authority which can be used on projects villagewide, potentially including the EMS building — a $275,000 grant for energy savings upgrades and a $500,000 grant for designing geothermal heating/cooling systems.
Last summer, the village board approved a $340,000 contract with the architecture firm Wendel Architecture, Engineering, Surveying and Landscape Architecture for design work as part of a broader $1.78 million contract.
The building proposed at 33 Petrova has had a rough floor plan of almost 69,000 square feet, though that is likely to change.
They are trying to cut 10,000 square feet from the building by reducing the amount of new garage space and demolishing an existing addition to the original Pius X building. Williams previously said this downsize could potentially shave an additional $2.7 million off the $27.5 million estimated total cost.
Currently, the building is sized at having a 38,890-square-feet first floor with a 24,235-square-feet crawl space. Initial plans called for around 30,000 square feet of garage additions.
The three departments currently take up 17,746 square feet in their separate locations. The consultants put the estimated space need for the three departments in the next 20 years — to improve their current situations and be prepared for the future of emergency response — at 67,000 square feet.
Committee
Williams said, in the future, two members of the public, appointed from a list of residents who submitted letters of interest, will be added to the committee working on the building project.
The original members were appointed for four-year terms.
The committee members are Williams and Trustee Matt Scollin from the village, former SLVFD Chief Brendan Keough, current SLVFD Chief Michael Knapp, SLVFD member Dominic Fontana, Head Fire and Rescue Driver Rick Yorkey, Police Chief Darrin Perrotte, former SLVRS Chief Ryan Siddell and SLVRS volunteer Ben Watson.
This lineup is expected to change slightly in the near future, as Julie Harjung has taken over as chief of the rescue squad and Fontana has stepped down as a SLVFD member.