VILLAGE OF FAYETTEVILLE – As a gesture of gratitude for welcoming it as a new business in the village, the Splash Car Wash coming to Fayetteville recently returned a historic fire siren that was on its site back to the municipality. The siren, which hasn’t been in use for a number of years, was placed a trailer and moved off the 129 W. Genesee St. property the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 19. Fayetteville Mayor Mike Small said that particular siren was purchased in 1971 to replace another, even older one in that lower part of the village. Both were used to alert firefighters and villagers in earshot in the event of emergencies like house fires, back before the days of pagers and texting. “All these things come on people’s cell phones now—Reverse 911, say, is an example, or weather alerts or Amber alerts,” Small said. “So it’s kind of a historic thing in that way because it’s not used anymore for notification purposes and communication. Back in the day, this was the outward notification.” The replacement siren, which Small remembers hearing growing up, would go off every day at noon as a public acknowledgement of what time it was in a similar way to the chiming of church bells and again every Thursday evening at 7:30 to make it known that it was practice night for the village’s firefighters, where they would get together to train and develop camaraderie. A second siren was mounted atop the roof shared by the village hall and fire house as well, Small said, but that was taken down because it was rattling—and with that damaging—the roof of that building on East Genesee Street whenever the whistle blew. Small said there used to be different numbers of times the siren would sound off depending on if it was a fire or ambulance call happening at that moment. Because it was situated in the center of the village up until sometime early this century, people in the community could hear the siren from all directions, he said. Michael Grubka, the area manager for Splash Car Wash, said he’s happy to give a prevalent piece of history back to the Fayetteville community amid the property restoration making way for the new business, in a sense linking the past and the future. Expected to be set up and opened by June, the car wash will play into the walkability of the village without negative environmental impacts, Grubka said, adding that it will be a “much-needed” addition to Fayetteville seeing as how the property had been “barren” and unused with overgrowth forming since at least 2018. Grubka said the car wash, preceded at that busy corner spot by a cell phone store and a different self-serve car wash, will be a time saver for Fayetteville residents looking to spiff up their rides. “They’re now gonna be able to clean and protect their vehicle inside and out right here and then take the short two-minute drive home,” he said. The Splash Car Wash will include self-serve vacuuming, machines for cleaning floor mats, an automated prepping system with dual sprayers and rotating nozzles that profiles the entire vehicle as it moves through the tunnel, and unlimited plans for customers who like to wash their vehicles a little more often than others. Splash Car Wash has locations in other parts of New York like Plattsburgh and Williamsville as well as Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.