Medina will seek CDBG grant for $1 million for fire hall addition

Trustee Padoleski says Medina taxpayers already bearing too much cost for services, calls for county-wide EMS

Photo by Tom Rivers: Medina firefighter Steve Long urges the Village Board to pursue a grant to help pay for an addition to the fire station. Long is a member of the union representing the Medina firefighters, Medina professional Firefighters IAFF Local 2161.

MEDINA – The Village Board, in a 3-2 vote, moved to seek a Community Development Block Grant for up to $1 million to help pay for an addition to the Medina fire hall.

The village was looking at a $6 million addition project that would have added two bays and also addressed problems in the existing fire hall. But that project was significantly scaled back due to the cost. Medina is now looking at a $1.4 million one-bay addition.

It is needed to accommodate a new ladder truck that should be delivered in December. The addition won’t be ready in time for the new truck.

Mayor Marguerite Sherman said the CDBG grant, if successful at the maximum amount, would cover the majority of the expense for the addition.

Village Trustee Deborah Padoleski opposed pursing the grant saying it wouldn’t cover the entire cost if Medina is successful getting the maximum amount of $1 million. She said village taxpayers would have to pick up the difference and the village taxpayers are already overburdened. Padoleski said a new ladder truck for $1.7 million will be difficult for the taxpayers. She suggested Medina try to sell that new truck to another department.

But Trustee Deborah Padoleski said that $400,000 difference is on top of the $1.7 million for the new truck. She said taxpayers are already overstressed from their village taxes.

Padoleski and Mark Prawel both opposed seeking the grant, while Sherman and trustees Jess Marciano and Scott Bielski voted to apply for the money.

Padoleski said it’s time for a “new vision” for providing police and fire protection in the village. She said she supports both the fire and police departments, but the service needs to be pared down to an affordable level.

“I feel like this is business as usual,” Padoleski said about the grant for the new addition. “I was hoping for a different way of doing business.”

She has favored canceling the order for the fire truck, but now the penalty would be steep – $340,000. She thinks Medina could sell the new truck to other departments looking for one, she said.

“I would like to see a countywide EMS,” she said.

If the service was through the county, Padoleski said it would eliminate a duplication of services and the cost would be shared more fairly in the county. Right now, she said the village bears too much of the expense and its firefighters and trucks often respond to calls outside of the village.

She also said the addition would not look good on the current fire hall, which is in a historic district.

“You’re not going to be happy with it,” she said. “It will look like a band-aid stuck on the building. My gut tells me this isn’t right.”

Mayor Marguerite Sherman said the ladder truck is needed, and the board has a responsibility to give firefighters the tools and equipment they need to do their jobs.

Medina firefighter Steve Long spoke at the meeting on Monday, urging the board to pursue the grant.

“You’re being fiscally responsible,” Long said about pursuing the grant funds. “We support the village going after the grant.”

Debbie Berry, a village resident, said she supports the firefighters and she thanked them for helping her family over the years. But she said taxes in the village are way too high. She suggested trying to get more use out of the old ladder truck, which is 29 years old, and trying to sell the new ladder truck. Other fire departments and districts are looking for one, including Batavia and Albion, she said.

The Medina Fire Department has a new ladder truck due to arrive in December. The truck won’t fit in the existing fire station. Medina village officials are looking at a one-bay addition to accommodate the new truck.

The Village Board received a letter from Justin Niederhofer, the county’s fire coordinator and emergency management director. He urged the board to pursue the grant.

“It is well known that the current fire station infrastructure lacks the space necessary to properly house the essential apparatus,” he wrote in a letter on July 14. “Without a suitable facility the longevity, readiness, and rapid deployment of this vital resource would be compromised.”

The Medina Fire Department with paid firefighters available 24-7 are critical not only to the village, but other towns in the county who rely on Medina for mutual aid, Niederhofer said.

“Their career staff provides immediate, around-the-clock response for fire, EMS, and rescue calls, including critical operations such as structure fires and technical rescues where a ladder truck is indispensable,” Niederhofer wrote. “Countywide fire operations are very reliant on mutual aid to ensure safe and efficient fire ground operations. The department’s mutual aid tole makes this project a countywide benefit, not just a village improvement.”