Archive: Around Town

A new fire station in the village of Lansing is slowly grinding to being realized as the Lansing Fire District continues negotiating with the Village for a location.  With about half of all emergency calls coming from the Village and a woefully inadequate Station 5 on Oakcrest Road, the Fire District has been seeking to build a new $2+ million station that is large enough to handle modern fire trucks and equipment.  The District owns land across the street from the current station, but Village Officials don't want them to build in what they view as a potential residential development zone.


Instead the Village has offered to lease a space for $1 per year behind the Village office, bringing it into what some officials see as a central Village services campus.  Negotiations have been going at a snail's pace, though officials on both sides see some progress being made.  District Treasurer George Gesslein met with Mayor Don Hartill and Village Trustee John O'Neill before the Fire Commissioner's October meeting to discuss placement of the facility and timing of building it.

One of the obstacles is that a water tower currently sits on the site where the station would be built.  The Southern Cayuga Lake Intermunicipal Water Commission (SCLIWC) at Bolton Point plans to paint the inside of another tower on Horizon Drive.  Once this is done and the tower is refilled, it will demolish the tank on the Village Office site by late Fall of 2007 if all goes according to plan.

Village Officials have suggested placing the station behind the tower's location, though the tower will still have to be removed to provide access for fire trucks to Triphammer Road.  "We have what we think are positive benefits to that," says O'Neill.  "It gives them a longer run to Triphammer Road.  But it also gives them quicker access though Ascot Drive to potential problems back in the airport area, or the potential buildup area of Lansing Trails."

Even if the Village and Fire District agree on the placement of the station there, pushing an access drive through to Ascot Lane will present challenges.  "It's private property, so we've got to talk to the property owners, and we haven't done that yet," O'Neill notes.  And he says public hearings will be needed.  "It's the Village Office land to use, but usually when something is built you allow the neighbors to provide their input."  O'Neil says residents are likely to be concerned about noise, and that architect Dennis Ross is taking that into consideration as he plans the building.  "He's a very professional guy with a lot of experience," he says.

Gesslein told the Fire Commissioners that the Village has offered to pay for most of the cost of the drive to Triphammer, and potentially for the Ascot Way drive.  He said that he was pleased with the negotiations so far, and that the next step would be to get Ross together with Village Engineer Dave Putnam.

O'Neill has long been a proponent of creating a center of Village services.  "It seems logical," he says.  "Everybody will not be happy, because there are some residents who will feel they are being impinged upon by the presence of a fire station here.  But of course they'll be much safer that way."  Placing the fire station there would group it with the Village Office and Public Works facilities.  Gesslein agrees with this idea.  "They have the land," he said.  "It makes sense to keep utilities together."

But negotiations are still going very slowly.  "With a meeting of the minds and the advice of the expert architect, probably something good will come about in a slow and steady way," O'Neill says.

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