Saving Fire Station No. 19

Fire Station No. 19 is part of our neighborhood.  We often see the firefighters sitting outside when the weather is nice and they are not out fighting a fire. They take the fire truck to neighborhood events - they came to National Night Out on Wessyngton a couple of years ago.  We've taken cookies to the station on Christmas Eve a few times, and been to lots of neighborhood 5K runs that have started there.

A few years ago a campaign was started by the firefighters to raise money to removate the station.   An architechural firm put together an plan, and we all bought Fire Station No. 19 T-shirts to support the cause (plus, they were really cool, although Tom sometimes got mistaken for a firefighter when he wore his).  This is from the flyer from years ago:

Built in 1925, Station 19 has served and protected the Virginia Higland community for 85 years. Standing proud at the heart of the neighborhood, the building is the oldest fire station in Atlanta still functioning as a firehouse.  Old buildings, like this firehouse, need to be preserved in order to continue to function and serve.  After years of deferred maintenance, the firemen of Station 19 led by Sargent Ian Allum, are initiating the restoration and renovation of the historic structure.  Company 19 is committed to the health and welfare of the neighborhood, offering car seat installation & safety check, blood pressure monitoring, being a safety shelter for women, and hosting monthly story time for the children.  Restoring the firehouse will allow Station 19 to serve the community for years to come.

Fast forward to 2015.  The Morningside Mile is tomorrow,  It's a nice neighborhood event that benefits the fire station,

There's a one mile run ("Dude, it's only a mile") and what they call a block party, although it's not what I would call a block party; I think of a block party as neighbors in lawn chairs, and this is more crowds in a parking lot - but it's still a nice neighborhood event.

This year, the rhetoric about the fire station has been racheted up several notches.

This reflects what is on the firefighters' website, which states that the City plans to close the station in 2016.  The Virginia Highland Civic Association has a subsidiary organization, the Virginia Highland Conservation League, that is accepting donations to save the station.  Here's what the VHCA says about this on their website:

The City of Atlanta has plans to close the station in 2016. This decision has not been announced to the community at large, though, and key constituents in the neighborhood are very concerned about the possible loss of this historic resource that is central to our safety and community life. Interested citizens can help protect the station by donating funds to help renovate it.

The fire station’s building is in good structural condition but needs basic repairs. A neighborhood committee – consisting of architects, historians, preservationists, community leaders, and contractors – has made recommendations to renovate and update the building in partnership with the Atlanta Fire Department and the City of Atlanta.

Protecting out station will require community support. To date, nearly $80,000 has been raised. Another $220,000 is needed to keep No. 19 operating in a safe and efficient manner for another 50 years. Our goal is to raise those funds by December 2015.

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and shared it with some neighbors,  one of whom asked if it could possibly be true, that the City would actually close a station because it was in need of a $300,000 renovation, or did the plan to close it have to do with reducing operating costs.  Those were good questions and I didn't know - I just knew that for years they've been trying to raise money for renovations, and now there seems to be some urgency to the matter because "the City of Atlanta has plans to close the station in 2016."

Monday night was the Morningside-Lenox Park Association Annual Meeting and there were presentations from several of our elected officials.  Alex Wan, who represents us on the City Council, talked about the infrastructure proposal that had been approved by voters on March 17. There's extra effort being made to be good fiscal stewards of that investment.  The final list of projects is still being finalized, he said, but it does include the needed repairs at Fire Station No. 19.

This seemed to be very good news, and I emailed him later to confirm.  Here's the reply I got:

We have confirmation from Interim Fire Chief Joel Baker that Fire Station #19, post renovation, will be taken off the "Replacement" list and put onto the "Renovation" list. That's the fire department's way of saying that it won't be slated to be closed.

Regarding the funding, the infrastructure bond amount should more than cover the renovation cost for the building. There is a group of citizens that would still like to do supplemental fundraising to help purchase other incidentals for the firefighters that might not be covered as part of the construction budget (I'm thinking things like accessories, decor, electronics, etc.).

So...if you want to sign up for the Morningside Mile, by all means head on down to Highland Runners today and do it, but I think the fire station is probably going to be fine.  I already donated to the Virginia Highland Conservation League, and hopefully that can go toward "accessories, decor, electronics, etc."

It actually would have been nice to have known this *before* the special election -- it might have gotten some neighbors out to vote who didn't -- but now, it would be good if both the firefighters and the VHCA could update their websites.  The station's been saved by the 17,791 citizens of the City of Atlanta voted "yes" on Question 2 on March 17.