Planning Board Approves
Hampton Inn In Hartwick
Cooperstown Will Reportedly Provide Ladder Truck
HARTWICK – Concluding firefighters’ concerns had been sufficiently met, the Hartwick Town Planning last night approved a four-story Hampton Inn & Suites in Hartwick Seminary.
Co-chairs Greg Korth and Alex Thomas, and board member Meg Kennedy, unanimously approved the project.
According to the meeting minutes, Cooperstown Fire Chief Jim Tallman said his department would respond to any fires at the site under its mutual aid agreement with Hartwick fire departments.
The department’s ladder truck is 104-feet tall, sufficient for the four-story building, and Tallman estimated his department could have it at the scene within 10 minutes.
On-site fire-fighting equipment, plus the sprinkler and alarm system, and building the structure to state fire code further allayed any planning board concerns.
Online research by the planning board found the National Fire Protection Association found that deaths in fires are “generally lower in high-rise bjilding .. than in shorter buildings of the same usage type, probably because of the greater use of fire-protection systems and features.”
Most fires, the planning board found, usually happen in kitchens and cooking areas that “are typically located on the first floors” of shorter buildings.
The new hotel will be on the site of a former trailer part just south of the Dollar General.
