The proposed contract, which would take effect on Jan. 1, calls for the town to pay the fire department $1,185,265 for fire protection for all of next year.

Town residents fund the fire department through a separate special district tax, which is expected to remain at $2.34 per thousand of assessed valuation – the same as 2021.

The town board announced the public hearing date at its meeting on Wednesday night.

In other action, the town board:

• Approved an agreement in which the town will provide code enforcement services to the Town of Alabama, specifically for development at the WNY Science & Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park.

According to the resolution, the Town of Alabama shall pay the Town of Batavia $55.44 per hour during normal business hours Monday through Friday. The charge for field inspections outside of that timeframe will be $83.16 per hour. Mileage incurred by enforcement officers also will be reimbursed.

• Completed the preliminary 2022 budget process, setting the property tax rate at $2.51 per thousand of assessed valuation. The rate is a 12 percent decrease from 2021, and will generate $1,236,000 in property taxes – the same amount as last year.

The sewer rate remains the same as 2021 -- at $7.09 per 1,000 gallons used -- while the water rate for both residential and agricultural consumers is going up by 2 percent – to $6.32 and $5.12 per 1,000 gallons, respectively.

Salaries for elected officials are as follows:

• Supervisor Gregory Post, $40,000.
• Deputy Supervisor Dan Underhill, $18,000.
• Council members Patti Michalak, Chad Zambito and Sharon White, $12,000.
• Town Clerk/Tax Collector Teressa Morasco, $74,541.
• Highway Superintendent Tom Lichtenthal, $20,101.
• Town Justices Lisa Funke and Andrew Young, $28,840.

No one from the public spoke at public hearings on the budget, sewer and water rates on Wednesday.

Despite the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 Pandemic, real progress is being made on the construction of a new $3.2 million, 10,000-square-foot Town of Batavia Fire Department substation on Stringham Drive.

Building Committee Chair Gary Diegelman said the project is “50 percent done” and, if all goes well, should be completed by the end of the summer or early fall.

Diegelman provided an update this morning on the heels of the Batavia Town Board’s approval of a modification to the department’s borrowing plan at last night’s videoconference board meeting.

The Town Board authorized a change in wording to reflect that the fire department will be looking to borrow up to a maximum principal amount of $2 million, rescinding a previous resolution that fixed the amount at $2 million.

“We requested a change after looking at our finances and deciding we didn’t need that much,” said Diegelman, advising that the department has secured a $1.6 million, eight-year mortgage from M&T Bank. “And with our tax-exempt status, we were able to get a lower interest rate.”

Diegelman said that the main structure is done and the pouring of concrete is scheduled for next week.

“They’re mostly working on interior stuff now,” he said.

Thompson Builds of Churchville is the general contractor.

It has been two years since Diegelman presided over an open house at the Batavia Town Hall. The new substation, which replaces the current Station 2 located on the north side of Clinton Street Road at the corner of Stringham Drive, will feature two drive-thru bays and entrances from both roads.

The project also includes four dormitory rooms, a 25-car parking lot in the back and a five-car lot in front, a main entrance electronic message sign and a decontamination room to keep firefighters’ gear separate from the rest of the building.

Diegelman said the coronavirus situation hasn’t hampered construction that much and was quick to add that work continues due to the fact that the emergency services project has been deemed "essential.”

In another development, Batavia Town Supervisor Greg Post said the Town is “running at 95-percent efficiency, even with everybody working at home and remotely.”

Post said four public work ventures are ongoing – water main projects and a couple of sanitary sewer upgrades, both at the Ag Park and King’s Plaza -- and he expects that number to increase to seven or eight in another month or so.

“The highway department is working on touching up the last parts of Ellicott Trail as well as maintaining roadside culvert pipes and doing all the prep work necessary prior to full summer paving operations,” he said, adding that employees continue to maintain separation and keeping safe distances from one another per New York State coronavirus mandates.

Building Inspector Daniel Lang reported that his department is fielding “quite a few” building permit requests, conducting solar farm plan reviews and assisting the town assessor with “end of the year” items.

Photo of Town of Batavia Fire Department substation on Stringham Drive taken this morning by Mike Pettinella.

Planners, on Thursday, recommended approval of the site plan as long as department officials obtain a state Department of Transportation permit pertaining to an entrance to the 10,000-square-foot substation from Clinton Street Road.

“It’s already (the application for the DOT permit) in the process; it’s already been filed,” Gary Diegelman, department building committee chairperson, said this morning.

Diegelman said he anticipated no problems getting DOT approval.

“The traffic study was done. There shouldn’t be any problem with it,” he said.

The new building will feature two drive-thru bays and entrances from both Stringham Drive and Clinton Street Road. With the drive-thru bays, the trucks will not have to back up to enter and exit the station

It also will have four dormitory-style rooms for firefighters wishing to stay there, a bunk-in program that has been gaining traction around the state.

The fire department’s site plan will be considered by the Batavia Town Planning Board for final approval on Feb. 20.

In other developments, the planning board:

-- Gave its go-ahead, with some modifications, to a proposal by Ronald Long of Springville to construct a 42-unit apartment complex to be marketed to seniors on West Main Street (Route 33) in the Village of Corfu.

Long appeared before the group for the second time in five months, this time presenting the entire plan after addressing a wetlands situation and getting clearance from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Stipulations of the board’s positive recommendation include creating a buffer between neighboring properties, installing lighting and landscaping per Village of Corfu guidelines, putting in a sidewalk from the street to the complex, and obtaining state Department of Transportation approval for the driveway.

“There was talk about a possible buffer,” Long said this morning. “I told them I would do whatever the neighbors wanted me to do.”

Long said his plan calls for the construction of seven buildings, each with six 1,155-square-foot apartments.

“It’s a cookie-cutter (design),” he said. “The biggest thing is that all are ranch style, with closed attached garages that enable the residents to get out of their cars and go right into their homes. They have private entrances and two bedrooms.”

Long, who has built large-scale apartment complexes in Clarence Center and Orchard Park, among others, said he picked up the engineer’s site drawings on Thursday and is prepared to go before the Village of Corfu Planning Board in the near future.

“The village has already given its strong endorsement,” he said, adding that he hopes to break ground this spring.

He said he already has enough (tenant) names to fill the first two buildings.

Currently, the site is being called Corfu Senior Apartments, but Long said that a permanent name has yet to be determined.

-- Recommended approval of an area variance requested by Zaremba Group Inc., to have 30 parking spaces (instead of the required 46) at a proposed Dollar General store in East Pembroke.

Town of Batavia Fire Department officials tonight outlined their plan to build a new $3.2 million, 10,000-square-foot substation – complete with a dormitory wing for “resident” firefighters -- on Stringham Drive.

“We want to be good neighbors, and give a heads-up to what we’re doing out there,” said Gary Diegelman, chair of the department’s building committee and member of its board of directors, during a public informational meeting attended by about 30 people at the Batavia Town Hall on West Main Street Road.

Many of those at the meeting were residents of the area on Stringham Drive near the proposed location of the new fire hall.

Diegelman said the new building will feature two drive-thru bays and entrances from both Stringham Drive and Clinton Street Road. With the drive-thru bays, the trucks will not have to back up to enter and exit the station.

It will replace the current Station 2 which is located on the north side of Clinton at the corner of Stringham. The department’s headquarters will continue to be Station 1 on Lewiston Road, across from Kmart.

While no one objected to fire department’s proposal – “I’ve got a fire department in my backyard, and I have no problem with that,” said Wayne Benz, owner of a four-family home next door – several homeowners said they were concerned about a retention pond on the property for water runoff and the fire hall’s proximity to their houses.

“People are afraid there will be standing water and whether it will be an eyesore or a mosquito breeding ground,” said Brian Odachowski, who purchased Dana Stringham’s home at 5017 Clinton Street Road last year. “There’s already a drainage problem for people on the lower end.”

Odachowski, who said the fire hall will be in his backyard, said his main concern is “how much of the greenspace (buffer between his property and the fire hall) will be taken away.”

He said he was hopeful that the retention pond will be “done in the right way … to stop the massive runoff that would sweep into the backyards of people living there.”

Diegelman said the fire department contracted with architect Mitchell Associates Architects of Voorheesville and with the Western New York engineering firm Clark Patterson Lee.

“All he (Robert Mitchell) does is fire departments,” Diegelman said.

He said the department purchased the property about three years ago and “got the bumps out of the road.” With that, it is ready to present its proposal to the Genesee County Planning Board (this Thursday night) and then to the Town Planning Board (on Feb. 20).

Other details of the plan include a 25-car parking lot in the back and a five-car lot in front, an electronic message sign at the main entrance off Clinton Street Road, and a decontamination room to keep firefighters’ gear separate from the rest of the building.

Diegelman called the addition of four dorm rooms a “bunk-in program,” noting that other departments in New York State are doing this.

“It’s a space for four members to live there, sort of like a college dorm,” he said. “It could be for younger guys, and there will be set rules for them, and tasks for them to earn their keep.”

He said the benefit of such an arrangement would be that the bunk-ins would be there to “respond to calls – they’ll be the first out to get on the truck and go – but obviously we’re going to take into consideration that they have jobs, too.”

Diegelman, who was joined by Fire Chief Dan Coffey and other firefighters at the meeting, said the department’s fiscal responsibility has enabled it to proceed with the venture.

“We have money in the coffers (because) we’ve been putting money into the building fund account,” he said. “We will put down a substantial amount on the building (he later indicated the down payment will be around $1 million), and we will hold some back for furnishings (including TV screens and computers for the radio room).”

He said they will borrow the rest, and that he was confident the entire project could be paid off in 10 years. He said the existing substation will not be sold or torn down “until we decide what to do -- not in the near future.”

When asked if maybe the department’s budget was too cash heavy, he quickly responded, “Not at all.”

“The Town knows very well what our budgets are,” he said. “We present our budget to the Town Board every year, so they’re very aware of what’s in our coffers. They’re very aware of the projects that we have.

“We just purchased a brand new aerial truck. We determined a long time ago that any equipment purchases – trucks, etc. – would be paid by cash. So we pay for all of our apparatus with cash, and then the buildings get financed.”

He said the original plan was to construct a 16,000-square-foot, three-bay station, but the decision was made to go smaller – “partially due to cost, partially due to necessity.”

Diegelman noted that the new substation is needed due to expansion in that area of Batavia.

“We know that that end of town is building up a lot. They just put the big fieldhouse out at the college, and Oakwood Estates out there on East Main, Mueller’s building another big warehouse there, or it’s Hood now … so we got to know that it’s building up on that end of town. So we need to be progressive enough to be up with the times.”

He said that after obtaining planning board approvals, he anticipated that construction bids for the project would go out in the spring, and groundbreaking would take place sometime this summer.

Photos at top -- Gary Diegelman, left, addresses concerns of Brian and Julie Odachowski as other Stringham Drive-area residents look on; overhead look at the location of the new Town of Batavia Fire Department substation (outlined in black). The existing substation is across Stringham Drive, facing Clinton Street Road. At bottom, architect's rendering of the building (dark shading), which has two stories on one side and is designed to last 75 to 100 years. Clinton Street Road is at the bottom of picture. Photos by Mike Pettinella.

UPDATE 3:49 p.m.: It's just steam from processing maple sap into maple syrup. No fire. Responders are back in service.

The Town of Batavia Harley Raffle will be held this Saturday, July 26th. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Audibull will be this year's entertainment.

We will also have a beer tent, T-shirts, pull tabs, and a 50/50 raffle. Winner need not be present to win. We invite everyone to attend. There is no charge for admission and you do not need a ticket to get in.

Come on down and check out all the motorcycles. We will be having a best motorcycle contest. Winners of each class will win a free T-shirt.

Thank you for another sold-out year and your overwhelming support for our department and the Town of Batavia.

Pictured from left, John Mullen, Mike Jones, Ben Fisher, Tim McJury and Stephen Kowalcyk.

It's Fire Prevention Week, and as it does annually, the Town of Batavia Fire Department, is visiting local pre-schools and schools to educate children about who firefighters are, what they do, and the role children can play in helping to prevent fires. Above, Nate Fix and Russel Borden with a child from Genesee Community College's daycare center.