South Buffalo Blogger

To continue on the infrastructure frustration, in random order, Seneca Street from Southside Parkway to Mineral Springs:

By: CindyK.

Councilman Mickey Kearns attended a public meeting at the Cazenovia Library yesterday evening, among the list of topics, Kearns expressed his views on the City of Buffalo using some of their “rainy day fund” to build a new police station in South Buffalo.

Reminding citizens that the A-district is the largest in the City, he talked about police presence and the “different kind of crime” like the rash of graffiti.

With a police precinct on South Park and a fire station on Seneca & Southside, his idea is to switch the locations of the two stations, putting a new precinct back on Seneca and a firehouse on South Park.

“We were promised a fire station, and I know that’s coming. We’d like to have a police station too.” Kearns stated.

Councilman Kearns noted all of the other districts in the City have new(er) police stations except the A-district, and said there is no locker room for female officers at the station on South Park.

“I know it costs a lot of money, but we [the City of Buffalo] have a $40 million rainy day fund, we have $40 million sitting in the bank, we have a record surplus, we can afford it, we deserve it. We’re the highest taxpaying district in the city and we need a new police station and fire station. I think it’s a reasonable thing to ask for.”

Having met with the fire commissioner, Kearns stated his idea was very different.

“My idea was to flip them.” Kearns believes the City can build a new station in the same spot as the old precinct that was closed about 10 years ago, with zero acquisition costs. Saying the footprint would fit.

By that meaning, build a new precinct on Seneca and construct the new firehouse on South Park. Kearns feels his idea makes sense.

“It would a tough trade off” says John S. Klukowski Sr. Cazenovia Street Area Block Club President.

“The fire station is very centralized where it is right now, it’s at Seneca Street, close to Bailey, close to the 1-90, and it’s easy access to Abbott and South Park via Southside.” He noted.

“A police station on Seneca was always central to South Buffalo. When the precinct house was closed, it was the biggest down-turn for Seneca Street.” He added.

Having a police station back on Seneca would definitely turn the area back around, Klukowski stated.