3 Medina trustees approve declaring new ladder truck surplus
Village will see what new truck will command on the market; Medina may ultimately decide to keep it
Photos by Tom Rivers: Village Trustee Deborah Padoleski, left, led the effort to declare the ladder truck as surplus to begin the process of possibility selling the equipment before it is put into service. Trustee Jess Marciano, right, voted to not declare the truck surplus.
MEDINA – The majority of the Medina Village Board voted on Monday to declare a new ladder truck surplus to start the process of possibility selling the truck and backing off plans for a new addition of the fire hall.
Trustee Deborah Padoleski introduced the resolution to declare the truck surplus, and that was seconded by Trustee Mark Prawel. They were joined by Trustee Scott Bieliski in voting to declare it surplus, with Trustee Jess Marciano and Mayor Marguerite Sherman in favor of keeping the new $1.7 million truck.
The truck has been delivered to Medina and is currently being kept in the compost facility on North Gravel Road near Boxwood Cemetery. The current fire hall is too small for the new ladder truck. The previous truck from 1996 was 10 feet, 4 inches in height and could barely fit in the fire hall bay, which has a height of 10 feet, 6 inches. The new truck is about 13 feet in height.
A representative from Pierce Manufacturing is in Medina for three days this week to train median firefighters on the new truck. That started on Monday and continues to Wednesday.
Captain Michael Young of the Medina Fire Department urges the Village Board to keep the ladder truck, saying it offers many benefits for fighting fires and responding to emergencies.
The board agreed to allow the training to be complete, but the three board members in favor of selling the don’t want the truck to be lettered saying, “Medina Fire Department.”
The training is an estimated $4,000 to $6,000 and is part of the contract with Pierce, said Fire Chief Steve Cooley. The detailing also is an estimated $6,300 and is included in the contract.
Trustee Bieliski said it doesn’t make sense to have the lettering done if the truck will be sold to another department.
He wants to see what the truck will command in the market. Medina paid $1.7 million for it, and now quint trucks with 100-foot-long ladders are going for $2.5 million.
The village could make a profit on the sale and those proceeds could go to buying a used ladder truck that would fit in the existing fire hall, Bieliski said during Monday’s Village Board meeting.
Village Attorney Matt Brooks said he has tried to research a similar situation, where a village has bought a new piece of equipment only to turn around and declare it surplus. He hasn’t found a similar example.
The village may need to do a referendum to sell the ladder truck. It may face tax issues if it makes a profit. It will need a sign-off from its lender, the US Department of Agriculture. Brooks said there may be other issues to check as well.
Declaring an item surplus is usually done when the item is “superfluous or unusable,” Brooks said.
The new ladder trucks obviously isn’t unusable, and he said it may be a stretch to say it’s superfluous especially when the village could then buy a used ladder truck.
“Does it fit the definition of surplus,” he said. “It might.”
Padoleski, who is retired as Medina’s village clerk, said she checked with Rural Development, a branch of the USDA, and the agency is fine with the truck being declared surplus and Medina paying off the 20-year loan right away.
Mayor Sherman said she wants to convene a meeting with Rural Development, the village’s financial advisor and the village attorney about the next steps and ramifications.
Sherman said she and Bieliski and Fire Chief Cooley have looked up used ladder trucks and they are expensive, well over $1 million with some at $1.7 million.
And Captain Michael Young of the Medina FD said the used trucks don’t fit in the existing fire hall, either.
Padoleski and Bieliski said the need for a addition on the fire hall is a big factor in why they want to declare the truck surplus and move to sell it. The expense to village taxpayers isn’t just the truck, but the addition as well.
They said the truck at $1.7 million and a million-dollar-plus addition will turn into about a $4 million expense with interest to be paid over 20 years.
“it’s not just the matter of the truck,” Padoleski said. “We have nowhere to put it. It’s the truck and the building.”
Captain Michael Young of the Medina Fire Department said the current fire hall was built for the Department of Public Works in the 1930s, with the fire department moving its base of operations there in the 1950s.
The entrance to the fire hall is on a pitch. Young said there aren’t used ladder trucks on the market that would fit in the fire hall. Medina’s 30-year-old truck was shorter and wider to allow the two inches of clearance. But most other ladder trucks are longer and would need at least 5 inches of clearance, he said.
The addition to the fire hall has been sought by the department since before the contract to buy the ladder truck was approved by the board in March 2023. The board at the time thought there would be enough time to work out an addition and also address deficiencies in the existing fire hall.
Mayor Sherman also said the costs of fire trucks were rapidly escalating and the board wanted to lock in a price. Since then the costs for similar ladder trucks have climbed about $800,000 to $2.5 million.
But the costs were high, an estimated $6 million. The board then scaled down the scope of the project to a one-bay addition at just over $1 million. The board – which has three new members in the past two years – has been unable to reach a consensus.
Bieliski said the village taxes are too high for many residents and businesses, and a 20-year commitment to a new ladder truck and addition doesn’t make sense for overtaxed property owners.
He said Medina is the only village in Orleans County with a paid fire department. He said there are many other needs in the village from water, sewer, streets and sidewalks.
“I don’t think this purchase was being a smart consumer,” Bieliski said about the ladder truck. “I think we have to think about Medina. We don’t have to be the leaders when it’s on the backs of the people of Medina.”
He said declaring the truck surplus puts the truck on “pause” and gives the village more time to look at other options.
If the village would take $300,000 to $400,000 loss on selling the new truck, Bieliski said he wouldn’t support that.
But he thinks there is buyer that would allow medina to make a profit that could go towards a quality used truck.
“Buying a new truck and new building is 100 percent wrong to do to the taxpayers,” he said.
The new ladder truck needs to some additional outfitting and could be ready to go into service around April 1. But Bieliski said he wants to hold off on putting the truck into service to maximize its value to a potential buyer.
Mayor Sherman said the difficulties with ladder truck and all the negative publicity has been “embarrassing” for the village.
She is hopeful the fire department will ultimately end up with a ladder truck, whether the new one or a good used truck, that is safe and allows them to serve the community.
