Timeline on New Honeoye Falls Fire Hall to Possibly Be 2-3 Years

The Honeoye Falls Fire Department, whose fire hall is pictured above, was recently awarded a DHS-FEMA grant. File photo

Now that the Village of Honeoye Falls has reached a legal agreement with Nick and Gus Kokkinis to purchase the Critics Family Restaurant property in the future, the Fire Station Building Committee will begin the hard work of engaging an architectural firm and review design options for a new fire hall for the Honeoye Falls Fire Department.

While village officials had talked informally with Nick and Gus Kokkinis for the past couple of years, formal discussions brought the agreement to fruition over the last six months. The Fire Station Building Committee, however, also looked at other properties as well, on West Main Street, on Monroe Street and North Main Street.

“In no way were we aggressive with them,” said Mayor Rick Milne during a phone interview last week that also included Fire Chief Dave Hood and Department President Nate Rozzi. “We value their business and all they do and have done for the community over the years. What we have is a legal agreement with them but we have not bought the property. They will work with us over the next 1-2 years. We have had the property appraised and our agreement is on par with that appraisement.”

One of the biggest reasons for keeping the fire hall in its current location is response times, not just to where a majority of the department’s calls are but also response times for the department’s volunteers from their homes to the fire hall.

“First and foremost, the location decision was based on response times,” said Fire Chief Dave Hood. “The majority of our calls are in the north and northeast part of our coverage area. But, the location is also the best for our volunteers to reach the fire hall in the fastest time possible.”

The timeline for the project is likely to be anywhere between two and three years.

Milne said the next step would be choosing an architect, which he says could be done in one to two weeks since officials have been interviewing architects and have narrowed possible candidates to five finalists. Another step is meeting with residents and making presentations to the community with the hope of having a public referendum at the end of this year. Then, it would be maybe a year to a year-and-a-half of designing and building.

“We are really still in the beginning stages of this,” Milne said. “It is very important to the Village and Fire House Committee that we get input from all those we serve locally. But not simply those in the “village” but those in the fire protection district outside the village as well. As we begin to move this to a more community-based dialogue, we will strive to ensure questions, concerns and suggestions are considered and noted. The Fire House Committee, which is composed of business people, residents, fire department members and village officials, will also reach out to Mendon and West Bloomfield people because they are our fire and EMS partners as well.”

While one thought was to keep the current fire hall and tie in an expansion, it is more likely that a new fire hall will be built utilizing the same location as the current hall and expand back as much as possible.

“While we looked at that (keeping the current fire hall), it will probably be a challenge to keep it,” Milne said. “The current fire hall was built 76 years ago and does have some issues.”
Rozzi stated that a key finding in a report by an outside consultant had noted that the fire hall had met and exceeded its usable life span.

Hood said that while it is important to note that the facility is not falling apart, there is a need for a new fire hall.

“The fire equipment today is bigger and we need a fire hall so the equipment fits it and we don’t need to have the equipment modified special to fit our current hall,” Hood said. “There is also modern safety protocols and the need for different spaces for fire department needs. We also need a fire hall that makes people want to volunteer with the department. We also need to plan for the future, such as if the department ever needs to engage career firefighters. This building has served us well, but the need for a new hall is there.”

Milne said it is likely that the hall would be a drive-thru facility, like Mendon’s Fire Department, where the trucks pull out one set of doors and pull in through a different set. In Honeoye Falls’ case, the trucks would pull out of the fire hall onto Monroe Street as they do now but, coming back from a call, would pull into the hall from North Main Street.

Honeoye Falls Fire Department currently has around 40 members with about 25 of them being active members, Hood said.

Training requirements have also changed over the years and that also plays into the need for a bigger and newer hall.

“Requirements are much more expansive and every year there are more,” Hood said. “There are places where we can train such as the Public Safety Training facility over by the airport. But, with training spaces here at home, we would be available here and not have our mutual aid partners cover our calls like we do now when we are over at the training facility by the airport.”

While Milne said the village and Fire House Committee is not at the point of discussing a dollar amount for the project, he did say any available state and federal money would be pursued for the project.

“The federal and state governments are handing out money for first responders,” Milne said. “We have met with our New York State Senator Samra Brouk. Assemblywoman Marjorie Byrnes is also aware of our project and we will also reach out to U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirstin Gillibrand to see what money might be available to us at the federal level, through FEMA or other agencies.”