Fresh Loaf

A little more than a week after the city of Atlanta announced it would close Fire Station #23 on Howell Mill Road, the local Berkeley Park Neighborhood Association has a full-scale campaign under way to build community support for saving the station. The group is promoting an online petition that so far has collected nearly 350 virtual signatures.

The BPNA’s efforts have also managed to attract the attention of one Shirley Franklin. When Deborah Celecia Wagoner, the group’s vice president, sent out e-mails soliciting signatures, she received a terse, late-night response from the Mayor. It read:

This is counterproductive and based on flawed assumptions. S Franklin

Wagoner shared with us her response to Franklin’s message:

Mayor Franklin,
With all due respect, I am astounded by your comment that fighting for our rights as taxpaying citizens is counterproductive. The closure and brownouts of fire stations throughout the city is becoming a cancer. It is the understanding of Atlanta taxpayers that there is money to save the Fire Department but it will not be released. In addition, there are MILLIONS of dollars in unpaid water bills by huge companies that has gone uncollected while “the little man” struggles to make ends meet. How is this fair? How can we spend five million dollars on a theme song for Atlanta and even more on a re-branding campaign only to end up in this disgusting situation?

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It’s now official: Fire Station #23 on Howell Mill Road near Chattahoochee Avenue will be “temporarily decommissioned” around the end of the month.

What that means is, the single-engine firehouse will be shuttered for an indefinite period of time and the firemen sent to other stations as part of a citywide effort to slash spending. Apparently, the 54-year-old station on the edge of the Berkeley Park neighborhood was singled out by a study that considered such factors as coverage area, response times and the volume of 911 calls.

Councilwoman Clair Muller, who represents the area, is withholding judgment on the decision – which was ultimately made by Mayor Shirley Franklin – until she sees the results of the study.

“I don’t know how the neighbors will react, but they are at least owed a good explanation based on firm data,” Muller says.

The last time the mayor closed of a fire station, it touched off, well, a firestorm of protest. In early summer, Franklin announced the immediate – and permanent – closing of Station #7 near the West End. The city’s oldest working fire station, it was built in 1910.

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