ALBANY COUNTY — To replace defunct fire-training facilities and upgrade a new one, the Albany County Legislature unanimously authorized the release of $900,000 in funding to fire departments in Guilderland, Colonie, and East Berne. 

The majority of the money — $500,000 — will go to Guilderland, where an existing fire tower was taken out of service last year because of deterioration, according to a legislative request document submitted to the county legislature by Albany County Fire Coordinator Gerald Paris Jr., and Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.

The cost of a new tower is estimated to be around $1 million, according to the document. 

Another new tower will be built in Colonie, which will receive $300,000. The training tower there was built in the 1960s and was the largest and most-used tower in the county, the document says, but it was condemned and demolished, and a nearby storage facility is unusable.

Replacing the Colonie tower is “the highest priority,” the document says, and has received $500,000 from the State Assembly, with “total additional funding” between $800,000 and $900,000. 

The East Berne Fire Department will receive the remaining $100,000 to improve its newly-built training facility adjacent to where the new fire station is currently being constructed, the document says.

Specifically, the money will be used for a standby generator and a “training room fit-up of tables and chairs, media equipment, etc.,” it says. The total cost is estimated to be between $135,000 and $150,000. 

All the locations serve multiple fire departments, the document says.

“The fire coordinators and the fire departments have been asking for this for a long time,” county legislator Mark Grimm of Guilderland, who was a co-sponsor on the bill, told The Enterprise this week. 

He said that, at an annual county firefighters’ breakfast, he spoke with a number of people who all told him the same thing: “They need training.”

To be a volunteer firefighter in New York, the state mandates over 100 hours of training — a daunting task made all the more difficult when there aren’t suitable facilities, Grimm said. 

Fire departments have been receiving money from different sources for these improvements, Grimm said, and he expects that the town of Bethlehem will soon approach the legislature for a contribution because Bethlehem is facing the same difficulties as the ones just funded. 

“The financing is very tricky because it has to be a combination of local governments, the county government, and state lawmakers, but they’re not consistent,” Grimm said. “Some have given money and some haven’t … For example, Colonie got $500,000 from a state grant, and Guilderland didn’t get anything.”

That’s why Guilderland got more money than Colonie in the new bill, he said. 

“We’re trying to be as helpful as possible when they approach us because most municipalities couldn’t afford to pay for fire services,” Grimm said. “They cost a fortune. So we’re trying to make it work. That’s really going to be a focus — recruitment and retention. We’re going to do everything we can now.”