Blooming Grove Considers Police Station Future - Reno or Build New

Blooming Grove Existing Police Department

September's Blooming Grove Town Board Workshop covered a full slate of important topics including the Police Station's Future, a new commercial project proposed just off the intersection of Hudson Rd. and Route 208, and 30 pages of recommendations from the public about tree code revisions

Part 1 - Blooming Grove Police Station

After meeting with Blooming Grove Police & Emergency Services representatives, Supervisor Rob Jeroloman shared details of just some of

what would be required if they were to do a thorough renovation. The complex includes both the current functioning building and the Town's former Senior Center (which was recently replaced by a new one at the Lasser Park property. Examination of the current structures showed cracks in some of the concrete supports that could lead to a safety issue in the future. With communiucation systems between police, emergency services, ambulance and countywide departments and officials developing new state-of-the-art systems, any renovation would be major. Councilmember Cathy Acevedo asked whether it would be possible to construct a modular building, similar to the way that the new Senior Center was assembled. Unfortunately, Jeroloman said, the price of modular units has increased exponentially, and new laws require that workers from out of state must be paid New York's current "prevailing wage", so the fiscal advantages they reaped during the post COVID years are no longer available.

Councilman Steve Amante, whose family is in the construction business. offered that he thinks that given the complexities of such a renovation, it would be better to start fresh.... demolish the existing Police Station and put a new traditional building in its place. The fiscal issues, he said, would not be the only difficulty in a renovation. Its complexity, by nature, leads to revisions, waiting and delivery times for parts that affect worker availablilty, just to name a few.

He felt sure that a traditional "stick building" (one put together stick by stick right on the job site" would be a better way to go.

Cathy Acevedo added that she thought that given that the Board is finishing up the Town's 2027 Budget during the next 3 weeks and has "Open Budget Sessions" scheduled for September 22 and September 29, it would be better to

table the Police Station discussions until October 1. Members will have a better concept of the Town's fiscal status then as well. Supervisor Jeroloman and other attending Board members (Amante, Byrnes, Malloy, Schwartz, Stegenga and Highway Supt. Wayne Kirkpatrick ) considered it briefly and agreed. Timing is important since there are growing structural safety issue (that will be looked at more closely). But October is only weeks away and Board members will be able to be more focused with the Budget finished. The other remaining issue will be... If the existing building is demolished, where might Police Department work from during the new construction? An engineering study will give them a better idea of the time frame during which the department will need a temporary home, and whether there is any possibility that the Senior Center structure could fill at least part of that need during the new building construction.

Would a relatively small-medium relatively inexpensive prefab deliverable building placed elsewhere on the Town property coupled with finding some extra space in Town Hall work as a temporary solution while the new structure is being built? That's a tall order since there is not a lot of spare space in Town Hall, and either of those options would be a huge challenge re. both police equipment and existing police vehicle parking, and either the Highway Department land or unused land just south of Tuthill Rd. that had been considered for a new Fire Department site - even if available would have the

huge disadvantage of the distance from the Court at Town Hall. Fortunately

the Town Engineer has many years of experience in Blooming Grove and

it will be interesting to see what solutions he and Supervisor Jeroloman and Deputy Supervisor Acevedo and Councilmen Byrnes, Malloy, Schwartz, Stegenga and Amante come up with as recommendations!

Might a deliverable $10k-$20 movable "Tiny Home"

structure that could at least be used for some of the tem,porary storage

needs be at least a partial solution? Let's hear what the

Board and Town Engineer come up with!