Crime & Safety
Nanued FD Inches Toward New Fire House (VIDEO)
The department has a new location picked out
At the Nanuet Civic Association meeting Thursday night, Harold Straut, chairman of the Nanuet Fire Department's board of commissioners, gave an update on where the department is in terms of getting its new firehouse.
The department first brought their presentation to the board a , and since then they’ve found a location for the new building. The new building will be on Old Middletown Road behind Jolene Cleaners.
“It’s 2.1 acres,” Straut said. “It’s suitable because it’s big enough and it’s very suitable because it’s still close to where most of our members live, which is really key because being volunteers we need to get them to the fire house. There’s not always someone there, so we need to keep our response time within a certain timeframe.”
He signed a contract to purchase the space, which cost $650,000, and is waiting for the owners of the land to sign it as well. Straut said he hopes to close on the space around August 1.
The department went looking for a new location because the current building, located at 7 W. Prospect Street, has been sinking and was possibly built on a swamp.
“What we took from that meeting was that we need to learn from out mistakes and not build on a site that is sinking and was a swap,” Straut said. “We took your suggestions, we went out and got a traffic study.”
He added they’re currently waiting on an environmental study of the new location.
Straut said the department is also looking at redesigning the layout of the building, possibly even making it smaller.
“When we shrink size, we shrink the money, which is what we want to do. We want to try and cut this project down,” he said. “We’re not going to go too small, but we’re going to be able to cut it down. We want to cut the price tag down.”
One change to the new building will be the addition of a new multi-purpose room. Straut said it could serve as a room for meetings for different organizations, or it could be used for anyone who might be evacuated from their home for whatever reason.
Straut said they’re currently looking into grants to try and pay for the building as well. As for the current building, he said that they plan on selling it and using the money to help pay for items needed in the new building such as equipment and furniture.
