history central

Support  for construction of a county fire training center sought by the  Lancaster Fire Council was approved via a resolution by the Lancaster  Town Board on May 25th, 1964. The fire council planned on requesting  further support from the Alden and Clarence Town Boards, the Alden and  Lancaster Village Boards and had petitioned the Erie County Board of  Supervisors to back the Lancaster site. 

At  the time, the county was building a training facility in Chestnut Ridge  Park and another at a site provided by the Town of Amherst. The  Lancaster Town Board was informed by the fire council that the National  Board of Fire Underwriters had strongly recommended that a training  center be established for Lancaster and nearby areas. 

Over  a year later on November 23, 1965, the Cheektowaga Town Board voted to  grant Erie County one acre of property at a site at Broadway and Union  Road for a training facility. Erie County Commissioner of Public Safety  James H. O'Leary surveyed the Cheektowaga site and approved it. The  Lancaster Fire Council was quick to try and counter the Cheektowaga  proposal with a proposed site of their own near Como Park on the east  side of Bowen Road near Broadway, known as Weimer's Grove, which was  recently purchased by the county.

Former  fire council president George MacPeek was instructed to arrange a  meeting with the Cheektowaga Fire Chief's Association to discuss  collaboration. At the time Supervisor Dan Weber of Cheektowaga and  Supervisor Stan Keysa of Lancaster had a joint resolution before the  Board of Supervisors Capital Improvement Committee for the tower to be  built at the Union and Broadway site. Supervisor Keysa told members of  the council that he was doubtful that the project would be completed  within the next two or three years, sighting numerous financial problems  the county was facing at the time. 

The  project sat dormant for a few years until February of 1967 when then  County Executive Rath sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors asking  authority for the County Attorney to meet with town officials about the  proposed Cheektowaga site. "It is contemplated," Mr. Rath said, "that  the county either will develop a facility similar to those already built  in Amherst and Chestnut Ridge Park, or cooperate with the City of  Buffalo in the development of a more elaborate facility, with the city  paying for development beyond that which the county otherwise would  provide."

The Erie County Fire  Advisory Board had reported to the Board of Supervisors that it  considered the Cheektowaga site the most desirable and most practical  for the location of the tower. Meanwhile the Cheektowaga Town Board  passed a resolution to notify the fire advisory board that they had no  objections to having the project located in Cheektowaga and even offered  the county two acres for the project, on the condition the county picks  up the cost of any additional acreage.

Buffalo  Fire Commissioner Howard weighed in on the topic, urging a joint  city-county facility, sighting the mutual aid cooperation demonstrated  during the four-alarm fire at the Sullivan Lumber Company at Niagara and  Arthur Streets in the city. While the lumber yard fire was in progress,  there was a second alarm on Broadway, which had tied up 19 pumpers  fighting those fires. "A third fire at this point could have left the  City of Buffalo in a precarious position", Commissioner Howard said.    

Soon  after a new request was sent to Mr. Rath by the Lancaster Fire Council  asking that the Town of Lancaster be reconsidered for the site. An  unresolved issue at the time and effecting the decision, was whether to  build one tower to be used jointly with the Buffalo Fire Department and  the suburban volunteers. At the time the Amherst and Chestnut Ridge  facilities were open and the county was reportedly considering building  three more facilities.

By April  of 1970 it was decided that Cheektowaga would be the location of the new  facility and classified ads appeared in many of the local newspapers  seeking sealed bids and construction started soon after. On July 18,  1971, Buffalo Mayor Frank Sedita, Deputy Erie county Executive H. Dale  Bossert, and Cheektowaga Supervisor Dan Weber, were some of the  dignitaries on hand for the dedication of the new Erie County Fire  Training Academy at a cost of $800,000. 

In our next article we'll talk about now defunct Marsh Volunteer Fire Department of the Town of Tonawanda.