CONCORD, N.Y. — A fire department in the Southtowns believes the public is at risk because two county roads are in bad condition.
The Mortons Corners Fire Department in Concord says because of the problems on those roads, their response time in getting to calls in some cases has doubled.
Steve Bugary is the Mortons Corners Fire chief. Bugary says he feels he and his firefighters are forced to roll the dice in terms of public safety every day.
And it all has to do with two county roads that lead into Zoar Valley.
One of them is Grote Road.
Bugary showed us what it's like. Not only are parts of the road crumbling, but there are also parts that appear to be sinking.
"There's probably 12 to 18 swells in the road and to take one of these fire trucks down there is not going to happen it'll tip over," Bugary said.
The other road is Trevett -- which was closed a year and a half ago after heavy rains washed out part of the road.
Because of these problems, fire crews have to use alternate routes that are longer, adding to their response time.
Two months ago, Bugary says it took fire crews 18 minutes to get to an EMS call, more than double what it should take if these roads could be used.
And just a couple weeks ago, there was a car fire on Grote, again it took more than double the time to respond.
"Because we had to drive all the way into another fire company's district, which is Springville, to bring the truck back down into Zoar Valley," Bugary said.
Erie County Department of Public Works says they have a plan to fix Trevett.
REPORTER: So you know what the problem is you know how to fix it what's the plan there?
"So right now the design is ongoing we have in our 2020 budget over a million is a half dollars to fix for the construction estimate, which we believe would be in the neighborhood to fix that 400 feet of road," said Bill Geary, the commissioner for Erie County Public Works.
REPORTER: This is a project that will absolutely be done next summer?
"Pending the approval of our budget request yes sir," Geary said.
"Once we get Trevett, we can use that as a basis we can look at a similar design on Grote," Geary said.
But until all that happens, Bugary worries about what tomorrow could bring.
Mortons Corners averages about 100 calls a year. Often times, they are forced to contact surrounding fire departments to see if they can help out on emergency calls, but at times, that can be unpredictable because all these departments are a distance away and are volunteer.