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CORTLAND -- The city is exploring options for architectural assistance in designing a potential safety services complex for its police, fire, EMS and administration.
A Cortland City Council work session took place Monday for three prospective architectural firms to present their professional design services. Firms in attendance included Brandstetter Carroll, Inc. of Cleveland, D.S. Architecture of Cleveland and Strollo Architects, Inc. of Youngstown.
"After selection, I would expect legislation during the month of May to begin the hiring process of whichever architectural firm is chosen," Mayor Deidre Petrosky said Wednesday.
"We're looking to them to help us make the most financially responsible decision we can. And we're also waiting on different grants and funding strategies that we've applied for, so there's still a lot of balls in the air.
"It was difficult to rank them all. We were impressed with all three architectural firms that interviewed on Monday, and I can assure you that council felt the same way."
The mayor explained that the city began looking into the safety complex-style of departments in 2021 by starting with a facilities study.
"Our fire department was in the worst condition, as far as the safety of employees," Petrosky said. "So we commissioned a GDP facilities study because I was looking at whether it would be more cost effective to rehab our current buildings or build new. And the result was that it would be better for us to build new. At that point, our fire chief was looking at firms that design specific fire stations, and, or, police stations, when he would go to his annual conferences."
Petrosky said the complex is a "huge" investment and the administration would like to make sure that it is the right thing to build for residents and employees.
The cost for the project is yet to be determined, as funding through state, local and federal grants is still pending.
COMMUNITY
The three firms at Monday's meeting established the complex's potential for strengthening safety operations and its attractiveness to residents of Cortland. Petrosky said the finished project would "absolutely" appear more welcoming than the current administrative offices and safety stations.
"There's no way to enter the fire department," Petrosky said. "You go to the door and there's a ring camera where you have to wait for somebody to come up. We need some place for somebody to come in and sit down. And if they need assistance, which could be a medical thing, it would make it a lot more accessible."
Though the administrative building is the most accessible building, while still maintaining a higher level of safety than the others, Petrosky added that covering the police station upgrades would, "provide a safer environment for people to come in off of the street and make sure they are protected as well."
"I hope the public would view it as a positive," said fire Chief David Rea. "I think they do. Right at the beginning of COVID, we passed a capital improvement budget for new equipment, and also to help us toward the renovation of this station, in which we've done all we can do. I think the city of Cortland and its residents are on board for having healthy and safe employees come to their house when they need it."
The former Farmers National Bank parking lot is planned for outdoor events. As part of the new safety services complex, Petrosky said the city would like to see a large, multifaceted room dedicated to the Cortland fire training academy for multiple departments, police training, city council meetings and a business center.
Rea said it's vital while carrying out the project to have community input because it will engage residents, and give them opportunities to share their thoughts.
"We would like to use it for a multitude of functions," Petrosky said.. "My priority is the safety of my current people and people who we hire, followed by making it easier for our people to do their jobs, and providing a community training space, or whatever we can have in the larger room we'll have."
FIRE
The fire department building itself was developed before there was a 24/7 service. "Right now we're landlocked basically," Petrosky said.. "There's no room to make any additional improvements or corrections to the building. So, at that point we started looking for different areas, and different land for purchase opportunities. And after months of looking, we finally decided that there were a couple of places that would be possible, and we happen to own one."
The information Rea shared from conferences, Petrosky said, emphasized the International Association of Firefighters' research on carcinogens and increased cancer rates for firefighters, which motivated architects to develop a new idea including zones -- green zone, yellow zone, red zone -- in the past five to 10 years.
The red zone would be used for firefighters to wash and dry their turnout gear after it absorbs carcinogenic material and contaminants from fires. The yellow zone is used for showers and lockers, also providing clean clothing. The green zone would house a carcinogen-free environment, where firefighters would be able to "sleep and eat," Petrosky said.
Rea explained that new home building materials, as well as new furniture that usually goes into newer homes, are more likely to give off " massive amounts" of carcinogens.
"When it burns, it gets into our gear and into our skin," Rea commented. "So then we bring it back to the building and separate it, but we end up tracking it into our homes because we don't have a way to separate it."
Rea also said the current building is short of meeting new requirements set by the National Fire Protection Association and United States Fire Administration for protecting firefighters from such dangerous chemicals. Cancer is considered the number one killer of firefighters nationwide.
"We had nothing like that," Petrosky said. "And at the time, our bunk room was actually in our bay. So, we looked at the old Farmer's National Bank building, and council decided it wasn't cost effective at that time."
The fire department placed its bunks in its training room, creating four to five separate rooms. Furthermore, a shower was added to an existing public restroom, for cleansing purposes.
"Not ideal, but it at least made our people safer," Petrosky said.
While analyzing the property around City Hall, Petrosky referred to it as "flat" and "clear," while from a timeframe standpoint, "It made the most sense to develop a fire station at the current City Hall location," she added.
Rea said additional pull-out bays, an updated air ventilation system, public parking, more showers, bunk room separate from the training room, and an updated fire alarm system would be ideal improvements to come with the construction of the safety complex.
POLICE
Petrosky noted that the current administrative building was built in 1985, and that there have been "a lot of changes in policing over those almost 40 years."
"While the perimeter of the police department is locked and secure, once you get inside, the areas are kind of mixed. We don't have separate spaces for victims or interview places. There are holding places but while you're doing an intake of an arrestee, there's just one center room there. So you have a mix of authorized and unauthorized areas, which is not conducive to security at all."
An attempt to maximize the space within the building by allowing officers to use their cars as offices, the city feels that there is still additional space needed.
Police Chief David Morris said a more secure prisoner handling area, including modernized security features, additional office space, upgrade evidence, processing, and storage areas would be the key improvements to be considered throughout the design process from his department.
"Ohio building code requires certain levels of construction for public safety facilities, and our current building certainly doesn't meet today's building codes," Morris said.
"We've made do and we've followed the safety standards to the highest level possible, but these buildings were not designed to meet today's standards."
CITY EMPLOYEES
The city is in the process of hiring an assistant service director and the current special projects coordinator, Jefferey Jiang, uses the city council caucus room as an office because of the lack of space.
"My assistant finance director's office is in the closet of the finance director," Petrosky said. "It's just really crazy, so that is the reason why we have done all of this."
While a firefighter, police, and EMS shortage stretches across the U.S., Rea mentioned possibly bringing on new employees once the new complex is built.
"It could help because now we can put them in a building that's set with keeping them as safe as we can," Rea said. "I think it would help with recruitment. Everyone likes new stuff, but is it going to make a giant impact? Probably not, it is a nationwide shortage."
Morris agreed, saying, "I think the Mahoning Valley is losing a lot of public safety workers to the better funded, Cleveland suburbs and places like that. But obviously anybody looking for a new job is looking for a modern workplace. If they could choose between modern and outdated, I guess that would draw more folks."
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