Lake Success fire station vote put off for traffic study

Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department commissioners have postponed a June 6 special election related to $10 million in bonding for a new ambulance station so a traffic study of the proposed Lake Success location can be done.

“What we want to know is how much increase in traffic our ambulance building is going to create in that area,” Commissioner Mark Sauvigne said Tuesday.

Last week fire officials held a public hearing on the proposed $11.7 million facility for the volunteer outfit on Cumberland Avenue and were met with questions from residents, who cited concerns including cost and traffic.

“The traffic study is really the first step," Andrew Eckstein, 65, of Lake Success, said Wednesday. "They also need to have a neighborhood environmental impact study as well because I think it goes beyond just the traffic issue."

Sauvigne said the district will pay for the study and another public hearing will be held before a vote possibly around Labor Day. 

The department’s ambulance unit members share the Company 3 station in the Thomaston area of Great Neck with fire department colleagues who handle suppression duties.

The department has three ambulances and a Ford Expedition outfitted for EMS responses. Company 3 also is home to three pieces of firefighting apparatus.

Fire officials have said the station is becoming too cramped and a dedicated ambulance station could make operations more efficient.

Great Neck resident Constantin Arama, 45, lives across the street from the proposed location and said he believes the traffic study will show Cumberland Avenue isn't the right location for the station — if a facility even should be built.

“Postponing the vote will hopefully give them the time to run all of those studies in order to determine if this is the best location for it and if there’s a need for such a thing,” Arama said.