Millwood Matters
Update: The next Millwood Task Force meeting will be Thursday July 10 (NOT July 3, as originally planned).).
June 27, 2008
by Gene Nadel
Utter frustration is surely an apt description of the state of mind of those Millwood Fire District residents who expected to finally be introduced to the long awaited outside consultant’s “Needs Study” at the Board of Fire Commissioners’ monthly meeting this past Monday (6/16) night. Instead, the public learned the following…
1. Issuance of the final revised draft for public review will be further delayed but should be ready within two weeks (from Monday’s meeting) while the Board and JLN Associates resolve remaining factual and/or editorial differences.
Chairman Anthony Olenik indicated that, when ready, the report will be posted on the Commission’s web-site www.Millwoodfiredistrict.org.
2. The present condition of the second floor of Fire Station #1, which has been off limits for a number of months, has continued to deteriorate and has required emergency repairs.
Warnings of this condition apparently go back to a study known as the Helms Report, a comprehensive structural review, dating back to 1990! (That is not a typo.)
3. In order to proceed ahead with the required Environmental Impact Statement and the SEQR procedure for the proposed new fire house, Chairman Olenik, in a lengthy, complex motion, moved that the Board submit its original proposed 19,000+ building program thereby superseding the Consultant’s recommendation for a smaller size (17,258 sf in the 5/19 slide presentation; final revised figure not released to the public)
Adopted 3-1, with Olenik and Commissioners Indusi and Mead voting For and Commissioner Scheier voting Against. Commissioner Makowska was in Seattle on business and was unable to attend the meeting.
Adoption of this motion has caused some degree of consternation among a number of concerned residents. While counsel assured those present that the listed size of the project was certainly not binding (still subject to New Castle Planning Board review) and could later be decreased by the BOFC, some felt strongly that the resolution served to effectively reject the Consultant’s report before it had even been formally received!
Regardless of one’s feelings, the circumstances behind the motion do appear strange. Given the length and technical references contained in the resolution, it clearly must have taken some significant time on the part of some one (or possibly more than one) to prepare the text. Yet, prior to the initial presentation by the Chairman, it does not appear that the other BOFC members had been given the opportunity to see or read the proposal.
Viewers will have an opportunity to judge for themselves when the video of the meeting appears on NCCTV (www.ncctv.org —go to video on demand) in the near future.
When JLN’s final draft is ultimately issued, it will certainly contain many comments and suggestions, some favorable (we hope) and others undoubtedly less flattering. Clearly, there is and has, for a long time, been a difference of opinion regarding the appropriate size of the new proposed structure. Since size equates directly to cost, this is of keen interest to the taxpaying public and has been closely followed by WENT as well as other interested parties. Final decisions regarding the number of bays; whether they be safer “drive-through” or presumably less expensive “traditional back into; the size and location of various meeting and auxiliary rooms and offices are all yet to be made and the possibility of redesign and/or relocation still exists.
Clearly, the vast majority, if not all residents of the Millwood Fire District recognize the absolute necessity of replacing the present Fire Station #1. At the same time, few, if any, residents want to spend any more tax dollars than necessary to construct a “proper” building. Many of those who felt strongly about retaining the services of an independent, outside Consultant did so in the belief that the recommendations of an impartial professional with expertise in the field would provide the District with the guidance needed to determine what would constitute that “proper” building for us. In your writer’s opinion, we would be foolish, indeed, to disregard the Consultant’s research and recommendations. Rather, we should take advantage of what we have paid for and use this resource to help accomplish the common objective for the benefit of all involved parties. [Editors’ Note: Click here to read about Sara Brewster’s opinion of the BOFC meeting.]
Bill McGovern, left; Kurt Kleinmann, right.
Millwood Board of Fire Commissioners (Hala Makowska missing)
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Gene Nadel addresses the Board
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Bill McGovern
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The board’s attorney and Sara Brewster
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