The City of Danville will soon have only three active fire stations, instead of four. City Council members last night approved the closure of Fire Station Number 4 along East Main Street in a 12-1 vote. The vote came after a more than 90 minute long closed session during the council’s regular meeting.
Alderwoman Sharon Pickering has been one of the council members who has strongly opposed closing a station, but last night she said there was no other option. ‘’I’m against closing Station 4, but the way it was put to us – we have to vote either to close Station 4, we just don’t have an option to keep every station open is I guess what I’m saying,’’ said Pickering. ‘’So I guess our options are just to close 4. There’s no options left. I guess I would have to support this against my better judgement.’’
Station 4 is scheduled to close by the end of this month.
Danville Fire Lieutenant Jerry Sparks and other members of a special committee spent months reviewing how closing a station might impact the community, along with saving money. He says closing Station 4 will create a savings. ‘’This actually – what is actually being counted toward the budget side of this is $260-thousand dollars. And that’s generated by the elimination of a $200,000 road that the council resolved would be built to cover Holiday Hills. And it would also be a – $60,000 in addition would be garnered through the physical sale of the building. It’s a viable piece of marketable real estate once you’ve vacated it.’’
Carol Trublood was one of the citizens who spoke out before last night’s vote. ‘’First I would just like to state that I’m against any station closing, of our stations closing in the city of Danville. And I would further like to state that six months ago – in December – the majority of this council voted to close Station 3 when there was zero cost savings.’’
Several council members voiced concerns about closing any station during last night’s meeting, but noted the council had already voted to close Station 3 on Griffin Street. Last night’s vote cancels the closing of Station 3 and instead Station 4 will be closed.
