To the editor:

Last month a feasibility study was completed on the Saranac Lake village administration’s proposal to create a 68,920 square-foot police-fire-ambulance compound. Residents can see it at saranaclakeny.gov under Projects/Emergency Service Facility.

The community is in agreement that our first responders need larger, updated facilities. The village administration deserves credit for bringing this need to the forefront. But the study raises more questions than it answers. For example:

¯ How would fire trucks and ambulances come and go from the proposed site at 33 Petrova Ave.? The study says there will be no egress to Route 3. But it doesn’t say how trucks will exit. Anyone who has driven near Petrova School at bus or game time knows this is a major question.

¯ The study indicates that police vehicles would exit and enter by Petrova Avenue. How will this affect response times? To the west is a five-way intersection (where a bicyclist was killed in a 2020 collision) and to the east are the school and athletic fields. Residential neighborhoods are in both directions.

¯ The study says there is running and standing water under the former Pius X school. The structure can’t support the weight of vehicles. So apparatus bays, holding cells and other facilities would be tacked on, ballooning the complex to the footprint of 2.6 Civic Centers or 4.6 Tupper Lake Emergency Services buildings. Why didn’t the study scope a concept that buffers residential neighborhoods instead of removing hillside and green space to shoehorn in a massive structure?

¯ Why won’t the village administration commission feasibility studies for other potentially less-problematic sites?

¯ The study presents police, fire and ambulance wants. Which of these are must-haves? And what can taxpayers afford to sustain?

The entire project should be subject to environmental, social and economic review now, prior to village purchase of the Petrova site. It’s common sense as well as New York state law: compartmentalizing subdivision, rezoning and purchase is how projects are pushed to the point of inevitability without scrutiny.

I am a neighbor of 33 Petrova. It is important not to marginalize our questions because of where we live. Saranac Lake is a community of neighborhoods. We have heard the mayor and deputy mayor deflect questions and defend the proposal in its current form. But they have not reached out to neighborhoods to talk about the safety of streets near homes and schools. About how the proposal would affect property values. About changing quality of life so dramatically that working and retired people are talking about moving. About impacts on people in Section 8 housing and group homes who have fewer options.

I’m sure first responders have their own questions. I know many citizens question moving agencies out of downtown. We all want to solve this problem, and we know Saranac Lake can do it. Defensiveness and exclusionary process only set us back. Neutral facilitation and inclusion will build trust and find the best solutions.

Mary Thill

Saranac Lake