Rescue Squad Offer Accepted

The Ogdensburg Volunteer Rescue Squad may be relocated by next fall to the former Hacketts Hardware Store.

Squad Director of Operations Kenneth J. Gardner said Friday the organization's offer to purchase the 54,925-square-foot building at 1223 Pickering St. has been accepted. That has set in motion an application for a low-interest loan of $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program. Once that is approved, the squad will borrow that amount as a "bridge loan" from a bank. The USDA will pay off the bank and enter into a 30-year payment plan with the squad.

In spite of the lack of finality in the arrangement, Mr. Gardner said there is enough confidence and good faith among all three parties that the deal will be done "in two, three months."

Mr. Gardner is optimistic about the three-way understanding.

"This is an extremely good sign," he said. "The best case scenario would be to be in the Hacketts building by fall."

The squad's current location is 100 State St. In 2008, the emergency service paid $250,000 for 25 acres of land on Route 812, just outside the city limits in the shadow of the Route 37 overpass. But a chance look at the Hackett store last fall, which closed for good in April 2011 when it was sold to KeyBank for $740,000 in a bankruptcy auction, changed the squad's mind.

The squad will raise the remaining $240,000 from its own funds, according to building committee chairman Grover B. Katzman.

On Thursday, officials from the Watertown architectural firm Aubertine and Currier visited the empty building to begin work on a design.

"That's how committed we are," Mr. Katzman said. "We're very, very optimistic."

The squad figures to use about 24,000 square feet of space in the former store. The rest will likely be leased to another party, with rent revenue to be used to pay back the USDA.

Mr. Gardner said that renovations will cost about $1 million. In the end, he said it will be cheaper than "building from the ground up" on Route 812.

That would set the squad back about $4 million.

The squad will soon have a public meeting to explain its proposal, he said.