After 26 years on the fly from one temporary base to the next, Mercy Flight has landed at the former Flying Tigers restaurant near the northeastern end of Buffalo Niagara International Airport's main runway in Cheektowaga.
It expects to be there a long time.
The helicopter rescue service is finishing a $1.3 million renovation of the 13,000-square-foot building on Amherst Villa Road off Aero Drive and will break ground Thursday for a $1.7 million hangar and twin heated helipads. Those facilities are due to begin operating next spring.
"There have been times when we couldn't get out of the hangar to take a call," said Douglas H. Baker, president of the nonprofit organization he founded with Sister Sheila Walsh. "The heated pads solve the problem. We'll never be snowed in again."
It also helps that takeoffs and landings will be monitored from the nearby airport control tower. Controllers "watch us like a hawk," Baker said.
The move from rented space at the opposite end of the airport is being made under a 25-year lease, with options for 10-year extensions, signed a year ago with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.
Baker, 65, says he believes the service will remain in the new location long after he departs.
"I want to leave a legacy for the next 35 years," he said during a tour of the operations center in the former restaurant.
Baker went to work for an ambulance service at 13 and bought his first ambulance at 19. He built LaSalle Ambulance into a citywide company with 550 employees before selling to Rural/Metro Medical Services in 1995. He has worked full time at Mercy Flight ever since.
The service has grown over the years into a $7.3 million operation, with 80 full-time and part-time employees, including pilots, dispatchers and maintenance workers. One helicopter is on call at the Buffalo airport around the clock, with two on standby. Others are based at Batavia Airport and Olean General Hospital, both within 30 minutes' flying time of Buffalo.
Medical emergency insurance payments cover all but about $1 million to $1.5 million of the operating costs; the balance comes from private donors.
"We're constantly fund-raising, but we're a very lucky organization. All we have to do is ask," Baker said.
Having a long-term operating base after nine moves in 26 years will be a huge benefit, he said. The new location also will allow the public to view the operation up close for the first time. People will continue to have access to the lawn outside the former restaurant, long a favorite place to watch airplanes taxi, land and take off.
Tours of Mercy Flight facilities will be offered daily during the summer and on Saturdays and Sundays in other seasons, with pilots, paramedics and nurses on hand to answer questions. School tours will be available by reservation.
"It will be something special to bring your kids to," Baker said.
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