The Saranac Lake Police Department is close to temporarily moving to the old Army National Guard armory on state Route 3, seen here in September. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake village board has approved its police station to move from the current Main Street headquarters to the former Army National Guard armory on state Route 3 for an indefinite length of time.

After a unanimous vote on Monday, village Manager Bachana Tsiklauri signed the license and sent it to the state for their signature. He’s not sure how long this will take, but once everyone’s signed the page, they’ll be able to start moving. He believes at this point, the signatures are just a formality and everyone’s already approved the license.

The department still expects to move to a planned emergency services complex at 33 Petrova Ave. — a $27 million joint facility at the former St. Pius X high school for the police, fire and rescue squad. The project will take years to complete and has been contentious with neighbors of the site and some other village residents.

The 1,400-square-foot police department is currently at the historic Paul Smith’s Power and Light Company building at 1-3 Main St., the intersection of Main Street, Lake Street and Kiwassa Road, by the Saranac River.

The 20,785-square-foot armory, built in 1960, sits on a stretch of the state road called George LaPan Highway. Tsiklauri said the police will probably use under half of the square footage of the building.

The police moving to the armory would just be until the emergency services complex is built, to open the 1-3 Main St. building for a potential move of the Adirondack Park Agency headquarters from Ray Brook to downtown Saranac Lake.

The state owns the armory property. The village won’t be renting the armory. The state would allow the police to use it at no charge, but the village would reimburse the state for the utilities costs and any increased janitorial personnel.

Tsiklauri has rough estimates of the move costing between $10,000 and $15,000, and the annual cleaning costs at the armory location to be around $3,000. He said none of these figures are final, though, and the rest of the armory operation and maintenance costs have not been determined yet.

Tsiklauri said the department would essentially operate two stations for a time as they phase the old one out.

Public access on the armory site is a “gray area” Tsiklauri said, but the license provides for short-term nonmilitary use agreements to be executed. Tsiklauri said the state already does these for overflow parking when there are events at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Center next door and could be done for the police.

The vending machine for Narcan opioid overdose reversal spray, fentanyl testing strips and xylazine testing strips would stay at the current police department location. Tsiklauri said the police are considering moving the machine from its current location inside the department lobby to an outside location on the downtown property.

The license with the state for the armory is set for an indefinite length of time. It would be cancellable at will and without cause by either party, with 30 days notice.

The armory was used by the Army National Guard until 2016 when it was transferred to the state Office of General Services. It is currently being used for storage.

Tsiklauri said the armory will only need “very minor repairs” to be a police station. It’s already “pretty well equipped,” and they’ll just need to move their hardware and hook it up.

Saranac Lake Police Chief Darin Perrotte previously expressed excitement about this move, saying the current station is cramped, out-of-date and inadequate.

“Right now, we’re kind of jammed into a small footprint and we’re limited on some of our capabilities,” Perrotte said in September.

The department stores evidence and impounded vehicles off-site. It only has enough space to question one person at a time and only one bathroom.

This building would remain empty and be maintained by the village until the APA moves in.

Some members of the public have opposed the police moving from their Main Street location, saying the police should be in a central location to the village downtown, where people can easily walk in. The armory is between 1.2 and 1.4 miles from the current station, depending on the route taken, and it’s mostly uphill.

Perrotte said he sees few walk-ins; most people are on bike or come by car.

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APA move

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The APA plans to lease and renovate the existing historic building at 1-3 Main St., construct a new three-story building in the back of the public parking lot on the Lake Street and Petrova Avenue hillside and expand the existing parking lot to 72 spaces.

Last year, Williams said the existing building needs “millions of dollars’ worth of work.”

The three-story building, which used to house the Paul Smith’s Power and Light Company, was built by the son of the legendary Adirondack guide and hotelier Paul Smith in 1927.

The name of that company is still engraved on the side of the building. The village bought the property in 1986.

The first and second floors were previously rented to Franklin County for office space. The county moved out after their lease expired in June and currently, the police are the only ones in the building.

In 2022, the APA received $29 million through the state budget for a new headquarters.

At the time, APA spokesperson Keith McKeever told the Enterprise the APA’s current building is poorly designed and in bad condition; he didn’t think it would be cost-effective to renovate it for the agency’s needs. The APA has met in a small, 1950s-era log cabin for the last 50 years on a campus four miles away from Saranac Lake that it shares with New York State Police and the state Department of Environmental Conservation in Ray Brook, colloquially referred to as “Little Albany.”

“Load-bearing structural beams are rotting. The cinder block foundation is deteriorating. The 18-year-old HVAC system cannot be repaired without removing walls,” McKeever wrote last year.

Village officials said they are waiting on the APA to hear about what the next steps will be for the potential move. The state agency is still studying the potential.

“Feasibility analysis is ongoing to assess if the 1-3 Main site would meet all the Agency’s programmatic needs and that estimated project costs would be within the budget allocation,” McKeever wrote in an email. “APA anticipates all necessary information needed to make an informed assessment should be completed by the end of this year.”

There’s been contention over this APA move, though, with different groups of Saranac Lakers writing letters supporting or opposing it.

Of the APA’s 44 staff at the time last summer, 36 were surveyed and a majority either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the proposed move. Some said they were supportive of the move and a chunk were neutral on the issue.

A slew of 62 Saranac Lake leaders, including several former mayors, numerous business owners, clergy members, current and former elected officials, volunteer board members and other community leaders signed a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office in September 2023, enthusiastically calling the move “sensible, prudent and progressive” and urging the state to support it, too.

They said the offices would be an “anchor” for main street, putting “feet on the street” while renovating an “underutilized” historic building which needs a lot of work. They said this move would make the APA more accessible and visible, and that the state could potentially partner on the village’s planned geothermal project.

The Saranac Lake Area and North Country chambers of commerce, Harrietstown and North Elba town boards and Historic Saranac Lake organization all wrote resolutions of support for the proposed move.

The North Country chamber’s resolution encouraged the embracing of Main Street as the location for the APA headquarters, while asking the state to also seek further affordable housing developing in Saranac Lake.

The Saranac Lake chamber’s resolution said the move would put major investment in a historic building, provide economic opportunities for local businesses and align with its goals for the community.

Saranac Lake’s Downtown Advisory Board gave its “enthusiastic support” for the relocation project saying it would have a significant economic impact.

Steve Erman, a member of the Saranac Lake Affordable Housing Task Force, sent a letter to Hochul voicing “strong opposition” to the plan, contending that the proposed space would be better suited for much-needed housing. The chair of that task force said at the time that other members found Erman’s thoughts “sound” and that the village board should take his concerns into consideration, but the members did not co-sign his letter.

A group of 19 former APA employees and board members also wrote a letter to Hochul expressing opposition to the move from the agency’s current headquarters in Ray Brook and questioning the transparency and ethics of the process that led to this site being chosen for the new headquarters.