NORWICH – The Chenango County Bureau of Fire wants to revive talks with the City of Norwich that could result in the agency taking total ownership of the fire training center in the southern end of the city.
County Fire Coordinator Matthew Beckwith met with the Norwich Joint Committees to discuss the possibility during one of their regular meetings earlier this month. According to Beckwith, millions of dollars in grant funding is available to fix up and expand the training center on Prentice Street; however, even though the county owns the buildings on the property, the land is owned by the city, making the county ineligible for such grants.
“I had been undergoing conversations with the previous mayor about entertaining the possibility of the county taking that property, seeing that we bought the buildings,” said Beckwith, noting that the county has already been denied grants because it doesn’t hold a deed. One of those grants came by way of the U.S. Air Force. Service members would construct new buildings at the training center and count it as “engineer training” while the county would benefit from free labor, footing just the cost of building materials.
“We had put together a plan for some expansion of the training center – a burn building, additional office space, and an addition to the garage. We had to turn that grant down because we had to provide a deed to the Air Force showing that we owned the property,” Beckwith said.
The county has had a 20-year, $1 per year property lease with the city since 1973. It was renewed in 1993 but not in 2013.
The prospect of the county just taking ownership of the site was first discussed with the city’s former mayor and finance director, but nothing was ever finalized. Beckwith said original hopes were to turn the plot over to the county for $1.
While the transfer of property would allow the county to pursue grants to improve the training center, city officials worry about the impact it would have on certain services, namely water use at the facility which has traditionally ranged between 50,000 and 500,000 gallons per year.
Live fire exercises use the most water. Unfortunately, because the current burn building is not up to safety code, Beckwith said live fire trainings are currently limited to vehicle fires until grant money is available to construct a new burn building.
“My biggest concern is water,” said Ward Two Alderman Brian Doliver. “The taxpayers of the City of Norwich would have to subsidize this water.”
But the water issue had already been addressed in previous talks, said Beckwith. In fact, several items of concern had been tackled, including water usage, road access in and out of the facility, and the county’s responsibility to maintain the fence surrounding the property. The DPW would also have site access should repairs ever be needed to a primary sewer trunk line which runs underneath the property.
If the property is turned over to the county, the city has suggested doing monthly reads of water usage. Beckwith said he would also monitor it closely and that various fire departments that utilize the facility would be required to document water usage. What’s more, there would be an allowance of 500,000 gallons used annually before the county would be billed for water.
“Those were all agreed to as far as the county was concerned and sent back to the city,” said Beckwith. “That’s where it lays at this point. I want to revitalize the discussion and bring the conversation forward again.”