June 1, 2008

Imminent departure of station 6 exaggerated

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Rumors about an imminent sale of the land under Willow Glen’s fire station 6 to provide for the building of station 37 are greatly exaggerated.

However, there is a possibility that after 37 is built and data evaluations about response time are gathered, that 6 could be no more. That scenario, according to Jeff Cady, the San Jose Fire Department’s Resource Plan-ning and Deployment officer, will only take place after a number of steps have proven the department response time remains at eight minutes or less.

The subject will be taken up at a future City Council meeting in June. Cady has already spoken with the City Man-ager’s office and presented a Memorandum to office staff. He expects the memo to be made public in late May or early June. The subject will have to be taken up in June, before next year’s budget is approved.

One of the factors is construction costs. While the city engineer determined last year that the funds remaining in Measure O were not enough to build station 37, in today’s economic climate that may no longer be true.

The wait will provide time to determine the exact construction expenses. “It gives us time to identify if construction costs [will] continue to escalate or if they will flatten out and decline. That financial gap may narrow allowing us to keep station 6. Other sources of revenue could pay for the new station,” he added.

“The decision [to eliminate station 6] won’t be made until after the year 2012,” Cady told the Times. “It won’t be made until after 37 is built and functioning and we have followed extensive analysis of several different functions. It [the possible shut down of station 6] is years down the road. There are a number of steps to be taken before there are any changes,” Cady said emphatically.

The first of these steps is called signal preemption. This allows firefighters to control traffic signals at intersections turning lights green to speed up their response time. The second is called STAR - Supplemental Transport Ambulance Resource. STAR provides a two-man ambulance team, an engineer-driver and a paramedic that can respond separately to calls.

Both of these actions are designed to allow a service level of eight-minute response 80 percent of the time. “This is the appropriate service level objective of the strategic planning process,” said Cady. “We’re trying to do it in a way that optimizes what we have.”

Instead of the typical four-person firefighting team, station 37 will house six fire personnel. That means that four can go out on a call with a fire engine and two will remain behind in case of a need for a paramedic. Station 6 currently has five people manning the station, which includes a fifth person attached to the hose wagon, allowing for three to go out on a call, with two remaining back at the station to take on other calls.

Cady says that three people are not as efficient a team as is four people.

Station 6’s hose wagon is again on the cancellation list, based on the budget deficit. If the City Council removes the hose wagon, the number of firefighters will drop down to four, with the fifth person moving to another station. That extra person would be added when station 37 becomes active, Cady said.

However, if signal preemption and STAR do not provide an eight-minute response time to areas of north Willow Glen, then the situation changes and station 6 may likely remain, serving the north Willow Glen area. If response times prove sufficient, then station 6 personnel will be given other assignments and stations 4 at 710 Leigh Ave. [near San Jose City College], 9 at Ross and Hillsdale, and 37 will replace it.

There is a strong need for a fire station to serve south Willow Glen and most of Cambrian Park, Cady added. Up to now, the area has been served by a number of locations, but none close to such a large population area. The new station will allow coverage to smooth out, Cady said. But even that has not yet been given the green light.

Currently, the area pinpointed for station 37 is next to the Willows Senior Center, at the southeastern corner of Lincoln and Curtner. There is a recently closed gas station on the corner as well as some office/retail buildings on the Lincoln Avenue side of the street and a large parking area for the senior center. While the new station would have no impact on the senior center, since much of the area is considered parkland, the voters have to approve plans. Cady expects this to be on the November ballot.

However, a number of Willow Glen residents as well as District 6 Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio are not in favor of shutting down station 6.

“In a district that has a growing population with one of the highest number of people over 65, it would seem prudent to me that for public safety the city should retain the land [for station 6],” Oliverio said. “When and if 37 opens up in 2012, we won’t know the response times until then, so it doesn’t make sense. Why sell land when empirical evidence says we should retain it?”

He suggests what Cady has sent to the City Manager’s office, the need to retain station 6 for three to four years after station 37 opens, “to make the call after we have factual evidence that it will work out.”

Others, like north Willow Glen resident Susan Espinoza, understand the need for the new station, but not at the expense of the old. One of her sons suffers a heart condition and firefighters/paramedics have visited their home several times to prevent his death. She fears that response times of even eight minutes will not be fast enough to save her son and others with significant illnesses.

“I think building a new station there is a good idea. They do need a station down there, but they still will need station 6. If they remove the hose wagon and station 6 only has four firefighters, I’ll worry about response times - not just in this area, but throughout the area at Meridian and Fruitdale. It will take stations 4 and 9 a long time to get there. We need 37, but we also need to keep 6. Measure O had nothing to do with eliminating Station 6,” Espinoza said.