Medina scales down fire hall addition to one bay

Village seeks engineering proposals to design project

Photo by Tom Rivers: Medina Fire Chief Matt Jackson listens to a speaker during Monday’s Village Board meeting. Jackson said he favored a smaller addition to the fire hall to accommodate a new ladder truck that is expected in December 2025.

MEDINA – The Village Board has scaled down an addition to the fire hall to one bay so the Medina Fire Department has space for a new ladder truck that is expected to be delivered in December 2025.

The village was looking at a two-bay addition, but an engineering firm said the costs could top $6 million. That is far too expensive for the Medina, Mayor Marguerite Sherman said.

The Village Board may deem a one bay addition is cost prohibitive, too. It doesn’t have a precise estimate on the cost.

The board voted to seek proposals from engineering firms on a design of the project and estimated cost.

The board discussed having Barton & Loguidice do a feasibility study for three options: one bay and two bay additions, and also an option of digging down in the floors and driveway to make more space for the ladder truck. B & L said it would look at the feasibility of all three for $26,000, which is money not budgeted by the board.

The village officials decided to drop the feasibility of the three options, and instead go to an engineering report for the one-bay addition. The board felt the two-bay addition is well beyond the village’s means right now.

The option of digging into the concrete floors, which are already shifting and in disrepair, could have costly unintended consequences, the board and Fire Chief Matt Jackson said.

He suggested doing the one-bay addition as a bare bones option to house the new truck. The new truck is too big by about 2 feet in height to fit in the fire hall.

“I feel a single bay is the most cost effective and the safest,” Jackson told the board.

Board members met with B & L staff to tour the fire station on April 29, and trustees wondered if it was possible to change the order for the ladder truck to a smaller truck that would fit the existing building.

Jackson checked with the manufacturer, and other fire truck makers, and the special order smaller ladder trucks aren’t an option. Board members also wondered about the possibility of canceling the order for the $1.7 million truck. Jackson said there would be a penalty at $172,000 or 10 percent of the truck’s cost and would still leave Medina in need of replacing a ladder truck that is 29 years old and often not reliable.

To then reorder the truck again in the near future would result in a bigger bill, perhaps over $2 million.

“We need a ladder truck no matter what,” Jackson said. “It’s a danger to us and the community.”

Mayor Sherman said she would reach out to state and federal officials for funding assistance with the truck and fire hall addition, and try again to see if the County Legislature would loosen up any of the local sales tax revenue. The county has kept the village and towns frozen at the same level since 2001.

Mike Maak, a mayoral candidate in March and a retired Medina firefighter, urged the board to look long-term and not put too much money in the current fire station, which was built around 1930 originally for the DPW. The floors weren’t intended to hold such heavy fire trucks, Maak said.

“This is not a new problem and it’s not going away,” Maak said.

He believes the village should look to build a modern public safety building for the fire and police departments, a facility that could serve the community for the next hundred years. Putting it outside the historic district also would give the village more flexibility in the design, Maak said.

But Sherman said the village doesn’t have the money for a big new building.

“We have to shake the trees for money,” she said. “There has to be someone who can help us achieve.”