Press release from the City of Asheville:
A new fire station is planned for City-owned property on Broadway in the Five Points neighborhood. The City of Asheville will host a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, March 11, at Greater Works Church, 25 Forsythe St.
The community is invited to attend to learn more about the project and meet the architect as the project begins the design phase.
For more information, please visit this informational webpage on the City of Asheville website.
Find a copy of this press release on Asheville City Source.
The City had a fire station less than two blocks away, but they chose to not upgrade it and let it fall out of compliance with modern standards. It now serves as a “museum”. It’s just like the City of Asheville to cast something aside, wait long enough for the public to forget, and then demand that the citizens desperately needs the exact thing they cast away.
I’m not saying that they don’t need a fire station to serve that community, I would just like to know what changed that they now need it again. The Merrimon and Montford neighborhoods that the station would presumably serve are all pretty much fully developed, and have been for decades. You can’t say UNCA; there’s already an even closer station to the college, one signal away.
I’m sure that Fire officials will argue that the old station could not accommodate a pull through station, and that living quarters were not up to the same as other fire stations. I would counter that just like with RADTIP, let’s not confuse “need” with “want”.
Also, one other point: aren’t a majority of Asheville Fire calls medical in nature, and they don’t even need the big fire trucks to respond to those? And, didn’t the Fire Chief pose a request (a few years ago) for a half million dollars in RRV (Rapid Response Vehicles) to serve that purpose so they wouldn’t need to run the big trucks, and more importantly, “they won’t need to add more new costly fire stations”?
How about resources to solve some of the 70+ cases of arson and fires of undetermined causes in our area? This town has serial arsonist.