Eclipse: Adams Fire Co. boosted by Weaver's support

Article and photos by Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Adams Fire Co. got a big boost for its eclipse planning and logistics from Bob Weaver Motorsports & Marine Inc. this past week.

The fire company got five off-road vehicles on loan from Bob Weaver for use to help monitor events surrounding the eclipse Sunday and Monday.

The help was designed to deal with any emergencies that might arise with the extra crowds and traffic anticipated to hit Niagara County before, during and after the big event.

The exchange marked the beginning of a partnership that will benefit Wheatfield and the surrounding area when other events of large proportions occur.

As it turned out, advance preparations were precautionary, and all went smoothly.

Adams Fire Chief Don Lauer was grateful for the support of Bob Weaver’s company.

“We had no emergency calls, and the traffic was not a problem,” he said. “The 17 firefighters that volunteered some or all of the day, standing by from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., was good camaraderie, and we got some work and training done around both stations.

“We only got a glimpse of the eclipse prior to full totality, and more after it got light again, but it was a very cool experience that we will all remember for a lifetime.”

Lauer said that, in advance of the eclipse, the fire company faced a very fluid situation. It was hard to predict how thousands of out-of-town and out-of-state visitors would impact crowd and traffic safety. Hotels were sold out in Niagara Falls, and the prediction was for sizable traffic congestion.

“We don’t know what to expect,” Lauer said Saturday. “We’re expecting in Niagara County over 100,000 people. And the population – they were saying – could be close to a million.”

He said Niagara County’s population is around 200,000, and with a massive influx of visitors, there was the potential need for off-road monitoring, at the very least.

“We’ve got to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best,” Lauer said.

Bob Weaver, owner of Bob Weaver Motorsports & Marine Inc., said, “They needed a way to get from one end of the boulevard to another end of the boulevard because they assume the boulevard’s going to be jam-packed full. And if there’s an emergency, they can’t get a fire truck or a rescue vehicle there, so they’re going to have to do alternate transportation.

“So, they asked if they could borrow ATVs and side-by-sides so they could run down the shoulders of the road and they could get to where there’s an emergency.”

Weaver said his company loaned the fire company two side-by-sides and three ATVs, all of which would be returned after the event

Weaver said he’s glad to be of service in times of need: “Anything we can do to help the community.”

Bob Weaver Motorsports has been in its current building – 3400 Niagara Falls Blvd., North Tonawanda – for 23 years. The brands of vehicles it mainly deals with include Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, Polaris, SSR and Kayo. The types of vehicles include motorcycles, watercraft, ATVs, side-by-sides and snowmobiles.

“Anything that has to do with fun – been doing it for 53 years,” Weaver said.

He opened his first shop, called Whitehaven Pro Shop, on Grand Island in 1971. At that time, Weaver was selling Arctic Cat snowmobiles and mini bikes. Since then, he has owned two different stores in Tonawanda and is the former owner of Anchor Marine on Grand Island.

Weaver said he had a personal plan for the eclipse: “To stay away from Niagara Falls.”

“Hopefully everything goes good for the eclipse and we get all the people into Niagara Falls and back out again with no incidents,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lauer had devised a response that could now include those off-road vehicles.

“We’re hoping that there’s no traffic gridlock, either before the eclipse or after the eclipse,” he said in advance of the eclipse. “But if there’s going to be a problem before, then there’s probably going to be a problem after the eclipse – because, just the volume of out-of-town vehicles wanting to get to Niagara Falls to see it, could cause a traffic problem on Niagara Falls Boulevard.”

Lauer said a bottleneck could occur at Ward Road, where traffic is down to one lane, potentially backing traffic into the Adams Fire District.

People relying on GPS would be guided to get off the I-190 at Niagara Falls Boulevard, he noted.

He said the 1-190 had the potential for slowdowns as well, as traffic made its way to Niagara Falls over Grand Island. That route would have traffic exiting from the base of the north bridges and proceeding along the Robert Moses Parkway toward Goat Island.

Lauer had fire company personnel available starting Sunday on a stand-by basis at both of the company’s fire stations from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., in case traffic became a problem. That, too, was a fluid situation. The company was poised to step in as needed.

Niagara County was planning its response for quite a while, Lauer said. “We’ve had several meetings down at the Niagara County Public Safety Facility (in Lockport), where a command center was set up to accommodate the eclipse.

“It’ll be a room full of people from the FBI to the Parks Police, the State Police to the Customs and Border Patrol,” all gathered to coordinate the county’s response to the influx of people aiming to get the best view possible of the eclipse.

Lauer said that, during the 2017 solar eclipse, West Virginia was in the path of the totality.

“In the back roads – not the interstates – there was 17 hours of gridlock,” he said. “All it takes is one accident to really screw things up.”

Also, he said, emergency responders learned lessons from the Christmas blizzard of 2022, when as much as 59 inches of snow fell in localities in Erie and Niagara counties between Dec. 23-27. During that crisis, snowmobilers volunteered themselves and their vehicles to help deal with emergencies within the Adams Fire District.

The company has its Station 1 at 7113 Nash Road and Station 2 at 3805 Klemer Road.

For the eclipse, the safety factor was the driving force in the loan arrangement between the Adams Fire Co. and Bob Weaver Motorsports & Marine Inc.

Getting ready to move out on their loaned off-road vehicles are Adams Fire Co. firefighters Bill Nalbone and Brendon Lauer. The ATVs and side-by-sides were available on loan from Bob Weaver Motorsports & Marine Inc, 3400 Niagara Falls Blvd., North Tonawanda.