Monday, July 21, 2008

Atlanta City Councilmembers Ceasar Mitchell and Cleta Winslow move to reopen Fire Station No. 7

Councilman Mitchell hopes to work cooperatively with the administration

ATLANTA – Atlanta City Councilman Ceasar Mitchell has drafted and introduced legislation to reopen the Fire Station No. 7 – a firehouse that had served the city since 1910.

Councilmember Ceasar Mitchell introduced the measure Monday. It would refund the operations of the historic facility by re-appropriating $1.2 million in monies used for consultant services, supplies, travel and other non-personnel related items from various accounts across the general fund.

Mitchell hopes to work cooperatively with the administration to identify the specific non-personnel accounts from which these funds can be transferred to save the West End fire house.

The legislation was co-sponsored District 4 representative Cleta Winslow. The bill was forwarded to the Finance/Executive Committee for further discussion at its 1 p.m. meeting on Wednesday, July 29^th at Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Avenue S.W., (Committee Room #2, second floor).

As a result of the 2009 Budget shortfall, the City Council adopted resolution 08-R-1350 encouraging the Mayor to implement an additional 2.5 percent spending reduction without mandating the closing any fire stations, swimming pools or recreation centers or further cutting filled city positions.

In implementing the FY 2009 budget, the Mayor cut an additional $7 million beyond the $14.5 million (2.5 percent requested by Council). In doing so, the administration eliminated 165 filled positions, including 72 filled; and ordered a $4.7 million cut to the fire department which included the closing and decommissioning of Atlanta Fire Station No. 7.

“Citizens throughout the community, many of them are my neighbors, have demanded the reopening of Fire Station No. 7,” said Mitchell, who is a resident of the West End. “We owe it to the homeowners, business owners and the thousands of Atlanta University Center students in the West End community to keep this facility operational.”

Via a companion resolution Mitchell and Winslow are also requesting that the Department of Fire and Rescue conduct an analysis as to how fire safety will be impacted from the permanent closing of Fire Station No. 7.

“We have collected more than 1,679 signatures from residents in the West End, Adair Park, Mechanicsville, the Pittsburgh community and from NPU-V,” said Councilmember Winslow, the district representative for the area. “All of them are seriously concerned about how this closing could impact us in terms of fire protection, our ability to be first responders to major accidents and the impact it will have on their homeowners insurance. We have made great strides in these neighborhoods in terms of new residential developments. Closing this fire station has put much of what we have achieved in jeopardy.”

Fire station No. 7 is one of the top 5 or 6 fire stations that receive well over 2,000 calls per year, and has for many years. The other back up fire stations to Station No. 7 respond to over 1,500 calls each year. This means that an additional 600 rescue calls will be going to adjoining stations that are already overloaded, Winslow said.

The Council is also requesting data on impact the recent decommissioning of Fire Station No. 7 would have on adjoining fire stations and the communities served by them.

The City Fire Department would have 30 days to respond to members of the City Council.