Press
Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Council Communications
City Hall
Contact: Dexter Chambers
City Council Communications Director
404-330-6309Direct/404-392-0159-Cell
Date: 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 29th 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.
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