Plans for new Cold Spring facility scaled back
By Michael Turton
Due to snow, the meeting originally scheduled for Feb. 9 has been rescheduled for the same time on Monday, Feb. 16.
The Cold Spring Fire Company (CSFC) has scaled back its plans for a new firehouse from three to two stories, CSFC President John Landolfi told The Paper in a Wednesday (Feb. 4) interview. The proposed project will be discussed at a public meeting at the firehouse, 152 Main St., on Monday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m.
Landolfi said the main purpose of the session is to answer questions that the fire company has received from local residents regarding the project. The revised plans, presented to CSFC members on Feb. 3, were produced by Keith Scofield, an architect with the Poughkeepsie-based firm of Liscum McCormack VanVoorhis.
Landolfi said construction costs for the new facility would average about $325 per square foot and that the third floor would have occupied roughly 6,000 square feet. Eliminating the extra floor will reduce the overall cost of the new building by close to $2 million.
It had been estimated that the three-floor firehouse originally proposed would cost in excess of $6 million. Those plans were unveiled at a special meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board held at the firehouse on Dec. 15, 2014. The architectural drawings for a new firefighting facility in Cold Spring are based on the design used for Fishkill’s Main Street firehouse.
Landolfi said that he feels the responsibility for funding the new firehouse, including the search for grants to help defray the cost, rests with Cold Spring’s mayor and trustees. The Village of Cold Spring owns the firehouse, and CSFC is an entirely volunteer organization. The fire company president said plans for a new building were revised because the original $6 million price tag would pose too great a burden on village taxpayers.
The format of the upcoming public meeting has not been finalized, but Landolfi said it would be discussed at a Feb. 5 meeting of the CSFC Building Committee, which is overseeing the firehouse project. Assistant Chief Steve Smith chairs that committee.
Sounds like a Village election issue.