Scotia firefighter Alex Lushpinsky opens a compartment door in the Mohawk Avenue station showing it has clearly outgrown the space needed for today's modern apparatus on Jan. 28, 2022.
Voters in Scotia rejected a referendum to build a new $7.3 million fire station to replace its overcrowded, century-old fire station.
Since then, other plans to replace the station and upgrade municipal facilities have come and gone by the wayside.
A new 16,000-square-foot fire station could cost $10 million, the cost of which would be spread out over 15 or 30 years, depending on whether other work is included.
But fire trucks aren’t getting any smaller, and construction costs aren’t getting any lower. A new station of some sort is clearly needed. But convincing residents hasn’t been easy, or so far, successful.
Many residents won’t vote for such a large project regardless of the need or benefits, in large part due to the cost.
But other residents will vote against it because they don’t feel they have enough information and are fearful of being duped. It will be those voters who send the referendum down to another defeat.
The best way to cure that kind of hesitation and convince people to support the project is to provide as much information as possible, and make that information as accessible to as many people as possible so there’s no doubt about the need or the cost.
Making citizens file Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests and redacting information is a sure-fire way to promote ill will and suspicion. Everything about this project should be out in the open and easily accessible to all residents.
But during a meeting earlier this week, some residents said they didn’t have enough information to make an informed decision. Those are guaranteed ‘no’ votes.
One resident wanted to see more evidence that the fire station being proposed is actually needed. Providing that evidence is a reasonable request for town officials to fill. So do it. Post the needs assessment online. If it’s not available or needs to be updated, update it or do a new one, and post it.
Getting past the need, village officials will have to sell voters on the new location. Village officials are conducting a survey. But so far, only a handful of residents have participated, which indicates that it’s not reaching enough people.
If village officials move forward with a site that a majority of voters don’t actually favor because they weren’t counted in the survey, it will kill the project once again.
When all the needs and location and cost information is posted and distributed, invite citizens to share their concerns. If village officials can address them before the vote, the referendum has a better chance of passage.
Keeping people in the dark, or making them feel as if their input isn’t being considered, is a sure way to kill any capital project.
Frustrated as they might feel by the opposition and by the desire of some residents for even more information, village officials must commit to going the extra mile to make sure all their citizens are informed about this project and satisfied with the answers.
That is, unless they still want to be having this same discussion 18 years from now.
Categories: Editorial, Opinion, Scotia Glenville