Millwood fire commissioners and firefighters happy with new plans for firehouse
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Reprinted: July 23, 2010
by Christine Yeres
Editor’s Note: We have received nine comments on this July 16 article and so have decided to rerun it to enable residents to continue the discussion.
In November 2008, the proposed Millwood firehouse failed to pass find support among Millwood Fire District residents, who have to foot the bill for its construction and continued maintenance, and volunteer experts who reviewed the plans. The draft environmental impact statement for the originally proposed 19,800 square foot firehouse for downtown Millwood, at a cost of $16.2 million, was roundly criticized.
So the Millwood Board of Fire Commissioners went back to the drawing board, literally.
Now, one year after hiring new architects, the Board of Fire Commissioners has presented the community with a new schematic design for an 18,000 square foot building on two levels with five bays and 50 parking spaces that is estimated to cost around $13.5 million. The commissioners hope to put a $9-10 million bond referendum to a vote on December 3, 2010.
Projected tax increases for Millwood Fire District residents
In the Commissioners’ July 2010 presentation packet entitled “Millwood Proposed New Firehouse Schematic Design & Budget,” a ten-year projection shows that the Millwood Fire District tax levy “will not exceed the 2007-2010 average until 2015” and assumes “a 1 to 2% increase per year based on inflation on the operating budget.” Between 2007 and 2010, taxpayers paid, on average, $423.35 on a $500,000 home, $635.02 on a $750,000 home, and $846.69 on a $1 million home. In 2020, those amounts will be, respectively, $466.58, $699.87 and $933.17, according to the report.
As part of her “Fiscal Impact Summary,” contained in the same July 2010 presentation to the public, Millwood Board of Fire Commissioners Chairwoman Hala Makowska stated that keeping an all-volunteer fire department was the most cost-effective means of operating the fire district. The report notes that salaries and benefits alone for full-time paid fire fighters would cost taxpayers between $2.5 to $3.2 million.
Construction cost estimates are around $9 million with another approximately $2 million in soft costs, such as those for architects and engineers’ fees, financing and legal fees, and $1.6 million in contingency funds for cost overruns and unforeseen changes.
The projections include neither the $2 million already paid for purchasing the Realis site nor revenues to be obtained from the sale of the current station #1 at 108 Millwood Road. The commissioners have some estimates of what price they might obtain from that sale, but decline to release that information at this time.
Design schematic reveals a modern red brick structure
The schematic drawings show a pair of long, low red brick buildings with mildly angled flat rooftops nestled into the slope behind them. The five back-in bays and the main entrance face west onto Allen Avenue. Behind this one-story apparatus bay, a two-story section rises, which contains offices, a lobby, an exercise room, meeting rooms, space for the ladies’ auxiliary, a kitchen and a ready room.
Many minds worked together to create this new plan
Makowska stressed in her presentation that the current plan owed much to two local resident experts, architect Tom Curley and engineer Phil Rice. Input from the volunteer firefighters, Makowska said, was invaluable. Residents, too, brought their concerns on lighting, sirens, traffic, sight lines and retaining walls to the attention of the commissioners and their architects, Deborah Fantera and Mark DuBois of Ohlhausen DuBois Architects (ODA).
“The firefighters fully support the design,” reported Commissioner Alan Schapiro. “They’re happy with the way the process went and that they had meaningful input at every stage. And Hala did an amazing job of putting together these numbers. What we really want is for residents to feel that whether they’re for or against the firehouse at the end of the day, they won’t be against it because they’ve been kept in the dark. This whole process has been completely transparent.”
“Tom Curley and Phil Rice saved the fire district time and money by advising us on how to proceed with the project and the consultants,” Schapiro explained. “We drove around to see other fire houses, what direction they were facing, the materials they used, the thought pattern architects and engineers used in designing the equipment room this way or that way. They’ve been unbelievably helpful to us and have said they will continue to help us.” The commissioners also had the benefit of the experience of Greg Santone, a firefighter and former fire chief (and the owner of Rocky’s Deli), who is completing the term of a fire commissioner, Fred Scheier, who resigned several months ago.
“When these guys started,” said Makowska, “it was a big challenge, both the site and the history, and we’ve ended up in a really good place because of the all the good thinking that has gone on. Everybody has been great.”
The timeline
The commissioners are hoping to proceed at a fast pace through the approval process to make their deadline of a vote on the bond referendum on December 3, 2010.
7/30 - Schematic Design Phase Completed
9/15 - Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) approved by the town planning board
9/29 - (approximate) Public Hearing on DEIS
10/1 - Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) approved
11/19 - Statement of Findings
12/3 - Bond Referendum
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Unfortunately I couldn’t attend this meeting. Thank you, NewCastleNOW, for your fine coverage of this event, and thanks to the fire commissioners for the fine job they have done.
Kudos all around!
Hala and the other Fire Commissioners have put together a plan that both gives our volunteer firemen everything they need in a new firehouse and is fiscally responsible. This is an effort that all of the residents of the fire district can be proud to support.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I will be voting no. This is not fiscally responsible, it’s just cheaper than the last white elephant that they tried to get us to pay for. I’ve been to the old firehouse and it is, without a doubt, a dump, but I don’t think tax payers should be footing the bill, for a special parking spot for the historic firetruck, nor do they need meeting and event space - there are schools, churches and other public places where “meetings” can be held.
To put this in perspective (according to the ny times), the state of the art, Seven Bridges School cost roughly $32 million for 160,000 sq ft. This amount of money, which functionally needs to be a garage, plus a comfortable and inviting place for very worthy volunteers is just too much.
When you take into account the additional property tax hike, combined with other local tax hikes, pending increases in Federal tax rates due to expiration of current tax rates, and likely increases in state taxes, most people just don’t have the ability to pay more - its time for the Millwood Fire Department to put in a proposal for what they need - not what they want.
A $635 tax bill in 2010 that grows to $700 by 2020 is pretty reasonable sounding to me. Station house No. 1 IS a ramshackle affair and needs replacing. Display space for an antique fire engine seems the only extravagance to me, and a minor one. The design of the proposed fire house is modest and handsome and will prove an asset to our Millwood hamlet. What happens with the site of the old firehouse (which the commissioners intend to sell, thank you commissioners!) will help improve the hamlet also, an important next development.
Although it’s encouraging to see the collaboration and transparency given to the second round of this project, I am a bit shocked at the cost of the new firehouse. Is all that space really necessary? In a time of cutbacks, I feel that the new firehouse should allow for basic fire services, nothing extra. Everything these days seems to be getting more and more expensive while people’s personal income is not increasing at the same pace.
This plan seems to be well thought out and attempts to keep the costs under control on what was known as a “difficult” site. Taxes do not increase until 2015. The Board appears to be getting good advice and actually seems to be taking public comment to heart. Bottom line is that a new firehouse is needed and this plan looks like it will provide what is needed to keep Millwood Fire Company a volunteer department for as long as possible. A paid department will be incredibly expensive.
Has there been an independent study of what a paid department would actually cost? Would it cover the same geographic area? Could it be combined with other areas? For example, could you eliminate firehouses by having paid staff that covers a larger geographic area? What are the advantages/disadvantages of combining with other districts such as the Chappaqua Fire Dept (they might even have an extra bay for the trophy truck and have unused meeting space). There has been a movement to combine services of various municipalities to eliminate overlap and admin expense, perhaps a similar approach can be taken here rather than saddling the average tax payer with a 500-635 increase in taxes.
DPC,
I don’t know about combining or eliminating fire stations. I also don’t understand how you are getting a $500-635 tax increase. There is NO tax increase until 2015. By 2020 it will have increased $43. Please look at the presentation so you have all the facts
I just checked the presentation and it mentions that using National Standards it would cost 2.5-3 million dollars to man a paid fire department for a district our size
I superivised the construction of the Ardsley firehouse, a 15,000 sf building costing under $11 million total costs. It serves a larger residential area and satifies all the fire protection needs that meets the governmental requirements. It is a very architectually esthethically pleasing structure, on a main thoroughfare. It has all the facilities that the community could ask for, including a commercial sized and equipment provided kitchen, and large hall for occasions. I cannot fathom the purpose for larger or more expensive in this economy. Sure, Mahopac and Armonk is bigger and better and more expensive, but white elephants are a big waste of money.
I am a current Commissioner on the Millwood Board of Fire Commissioners. At 7:30 p.m. on Monday, July 26th at Firehouse #2 at 366 Croton Dam Road, there will be an encore presentation to the public detailing all aspects of the proposed new firehouse. We welcome all questions and comments. Present at this meeting will be the Architect and the Construction Manager. I believe that once you see the plans and exactly where all the costs are derived you will come to the conclusion that this is anything but a “white elephant”.
I encourage all to attend.
Alan Schapiro
Being a volunteer is a calling ! Giving back to the Community fills a personal need, and in some cases a life long dream to be able to do so ! Take a look at some of the volunteers throughout the history of the Fire Department; I do not think they were ever planning on getting a PAY CHECK or a $19m dollar firehouse !
Stop threatening the Community that we are lucky not to have a salaried fire department ! If the good men and women of the fire department are not devoting their time due to the fulfillment of a personal need or calling to do so, then we are on a path to have a PAID fire department anyway ! We need volunteers to be content with what the community is able to provide them with ! If any volunteer was to believe or buy into the rhetoric of what you are dispensing out to the public, that if we do not provide a new $19,000,000 million dollar firehouse, they will up and quit, or not show up, or fulfill their own calling, and this is eminent according to your repeated threats, then perhaps we should keep everything AS IS and move to a paid force now, and work and keep the infrastructure of the Fire District in as is condition, scrap all plans, sell off all accumulated assets, and start providing JOBS to a paid Fire District; in this economy, our existing locations are just absolutely beautiful; ask anyone that does not have a JOB ! It is time to stand up and say NO TO SPENDING, YES to SELLING, and putting MONEY back to the Taxpayer. Wow, look at our local BOFC acting just like Wxshxngtxn ! Lets stop the party while we can, we have all had enough ! Call Town Hall 238 4772 and tell them !
