KINGSTON, NY – The city is considering purchasing a building currently owned by WMCHealth at 18-30 O’Reilly Street, across from the Kingston Fire Department’s main station. City officials say the building could house the department’s heavy firefighting vehicles while preserving the floor of the more than 115-year-old fire station.
Mayor Steve Noble presented the proposal to purchase the 12,000-square-foot building to the City Council’s Finance and Audit Committee on Wednesday, August 14.
If the council approves the purchase, the city would use funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to hire an engineering firm that would work with city engineer John Schultheis to develop a plan for how the building could best be used by the fire department. Schultheis told lawmakers it was too early to provide a sales price or the cost of renovations.
The building does indeed need to be renovated, Noble admitted, but lawmakers have not implemented the proposal.
Noble said his proposal to purchase the building comes at a time when the fire department is short on space at its Midtown headquarters, especially after taking over ambulance services from private provider Empress EMS earlier this year.
The central fire station, built in 1908, has a basement and that presents a challenge because the department has to park its very heavy fire trucks on a concrete slab above that basement, causing significant wear and tear, he said.
“We have been using this building for so long that it is no longer sufficient to accommodate a very heavy fire engine,” he said.
Sara Pasti, D-Ward 1, agreed.
“I looked at the floor and it’s very clear that the concrete slab is not designed for fire trucks,” said Pasti. “Using it only for ambulances will extend the life of the floor.”
The fire department has changed a lot in the building’s more than 115-year history, added city engineer John Schultheis.
If the city purchases that building, the very heavy fire trucks and equipment could be moved to the former HealthAlliance building across the street. The bays that currently house fire trucks could be used to house ambulances, which would be much lighter and would greatly limit the risk of future structural damage to the building, Noble said.
Kingston Fire Chief Chris Rea stressed the importance of having the ambulances in one place. That place, he added, is Central Station.
This location in the center of the city allows for the fastest average response times, especially when several ambulances are on the way and patients have to wait for an ambulance from the other side of the city, he said.
He said the dismantling of the ambulances would also bring challenges in terms of the department’s securing of the narcotics used to treat patients.
Currently, these drugs are kept in a locked cabinet monitored by camera, and the drugs are counted daily by two people, Rea said. If the ambulances were disbanded, this administration and control would be much more difficult to manage, he predicted.
Noble said a 2020 study found deficiencies in the main station’s floor.
And this study was designed before the city even thought about taking over the emergency services, Schultheis added.
The study rules out that renovating the current main station or building a new fire station would make sense, said Schultheis.
Michael Tierney, D-Ward 2, asked what the city would do with the current building after it purchases the property.
Schultheis said the city will preserve about 9,000 to 10,000 square feet of the current building and demolish about 3,500 to 4,000 square feet to rebuild the vehicle bays. “The current dimensions are not quite adequate for fire trucks,” he added.
The renovation project would include about 4,000 square feet of new space, Schultheis said. Rea added that this would be designed so that the fire trucks would not protrude into the street, while leaving space for the many Kingston High School students who use O’Reilly Street to walk to school.
“We don’t want to force them onto the streets,” Rea stressed.
Noble said the city first considered buying the building two years ago and was surprised to find that the healthcare group that operates HealthAlliance Hospital had already put it up for sale. “Unbeknownst to us, it was for sale and there was a purchase agreement with another person,” he added.
Noble said he contacted HealthAlliance and told them they should have spoken to the city first because it could use the building at a location where the city already has parking for employees and where fire trucks also park.
He added that he asked WMCHealth if they would be willing to sell the building to the city and that they then terminated the contract with the other person.
Noble said that over the years the building has housed the Happy Apple Thrift Store, been used as a warehouse and was also used by an ambulance company long ago.
The city will also receive six parking spaces in the adjacent parking lot, Schultheis said, adding that WMCHealth plans to continue using the remaining spaces.
Steve Schabot, D-Ward 8, asked whether the block of East O’Reilly Street in front of Central Station could be closed off to the public and made available exclusively to the fire department.
Schultheis said he knew of no way to convert that section of public road into a private operations area, while Rea said there was too much traffic in that area, including city construction vehicles, to close the road.
Tierney asked what considerations were being made regarding energy efficiency.
Schultheis said the city has great interest in using CO2-free heating and cooling systems.
Originally published:
