Post by district5 on Jun 9, 2012 8:32:09 GMT -5
When will Covington replace cramped fire house?
5:30 PM, Jun. 8, 2012
Written by Mike Rutledge nky.com
COVINGTON — Where and when will Northern Kentucky’s largest city build its next fire station to replace the quaint-but-cramped Great Depression-era fire station beloved by its Botany Hills neighborhood?
Five years since the state allocated money, Covington officials aren’t sure. That leaves residents of Botany Hills uncertain, and a bit uncomfortable.
The picturesque fire house barely has room for one modern firetruck and though most calls in the neighborhood are for ambulance services, the station has no room for an ambulance.
City commissioners last month asked Kentucky officials to keep holding for them the $300,000 appropriation state lawmakers made to help Covington buy land for a new station. State Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, and then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher inserted that money into the biennial budget for 2007-08. The city since has requested four extensions, and is confident the latest will be granted.
Meanwhile, city administrators and Fire Chief Chuck Norris have told Botany Hills residents a modern, larger station might be built elsewhere. Botany Hills, still known by some as West Covington, embraces the Ohio River’s shore between Covington’s riverfront and Ludlow.
But, officials promise, it will serve Botany Hills, just as the current one serves the city’s Lewisburg, Kenton Hills and MainStrasse neighborhoods. The station also is the first to respond to emergencies on the overcrowded Brent Spence Bridge and other parts of I-71/75 in Covington.
City Manager Larry Klein and the two city commissioners running for mayor – Steve Casper and Sherry Carran – don’t give the impression a decision on where to construct a $2.5 million to $3 million station is imminent.
Old-time fire house a bit cramped
There’s a nice, almost old-fashioned relationship between the fire house that has stood along Parkway Avenue since the Great Depression and the people it serves.
When not rushing to medical emergencies or fires, the firefighters sometimes sit out on the tiny front porch, or throw footballs with neighborhood kids.
“You’re right in the community,” said Engineer Craig Vogelpohl, who guided firefighter Ben Cawood’s backward path into the station after a run Thursday morning.
In an informal community outreach, there’s a Pepsi machine tucked inside the fire station’s single tall garage door that houses a 1996 Seagrave pumper truck. Especially during stretches when the mom-and-pop store space up the block is vacant, neighbors show up with their quarters to fuel their soft-drink habits, and maybe have a chat.
“The neighborhood is very attached to it,” Carran said. “Not only because it gives them a feeling of safety, but because there’s a history there, and they have a bond with the firefighters.”
City officials, including FiNorris, believe the time is near to build a fire station that can hold more than one fire vehicle, whose rear-view mirrors barely fit in the garage door. The fit is so tight that when shelves are filled, the truck’s passenger-side door can’t fully open, Norris says.
“You can’t miss by about a couple of inches,” said Cawood, after he finished backing the vehicle in recently. “You’ll take off a mirror.”
Why the delays?
Covington through the years has investigated at least a dozen locations, but in each case a location didn’t work out, either because the property was too small or the owners didn’t want to sell.
City leaders decided not to use eminent domain to force anybody to sell, City Manager Klein said.
The city also considered properties east of I-71/75, but had trouble finding a site without forcing a sale.
Now, two other obstacles stand in the way of buying a site: the city’s tight finances that have led to layoffs, and officials’ early deliberations of how best to provide emergency protection in the future.
Should Covington work much more closely with nearby departments, such as Ludlow’s? And if so, how might that affect where Covington positions its fire stations to guarantee the fastest response times?
Casper said he has talked informally with a Ludlow leader about that city’s fire department, staffed by volunteers, providing more emergency coverage to areas such as Botany Hills.
Another possibility is creating “a regional fire service,” Klein said. “It’s always a topic anywhere you go – civic leaders want to talk about regional approach to service.
“We don’t want to run out and spend $300,000 of taxpayer money on something that in five years we wished we’d have put that station somewhere else to be in a more strategic location based on a regional model,” Klein said.
Botany Hills resident Ray Kingsbury, a former neighborhood-association president, said he thinks residents would balk at being served by another department, especially a volunteer one such as Ludlow‘s.
“I think that’s probably a concern for some of the residents here,” Kingsbury said.
Casper and Carran said that while residents are very attached to having a fire station in their neighborhood, they will get better service from a modern one located farther away
On Thursday the pumper is staffed by a firefighter/medic, Brad Oberjohann. When that’s the case the pumper has the personnel and medical equipment to do everything an ambulance can except transport patients.
“If we’re able to create a new location that makes sense, they’ll end up with better service,” Casper said.
“It’s not quite as touchy-feely as having it right on that corner, but if we build something new, it’s not going to house one piece of equipment: It’s going to house multiple pieces of equipment.”
5:30 PM, Jun. 8, 2012
Written by Mike Rutledge nky.com
COVINGTON — Where and when will Northern Kentucky’s largest city build its next fire station to replace the quaint-but-cramped Great Depression-era fire station beloved by its Botany Hills neighborhood?
Five years since the state allocated money, Covington officials aren’t sure. That leaves residents of Botany Hills uncertain, and a bit uncomfortable.
The picturesque fire house barely has room for one modern firetruck and though most calls in the neighborhood are for ambulance services, the station has no room for an ambulance.
City commissioners last month asked Kentucky officials to keep holding for them the $300,000 appropriation state lawmakers made to help Covington buy land for a new station. State Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, and then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher inserted that money into the biennial budget for 2007-08. The city since has requested four extensions, and is confident the latest will be granted.
Meanwhile, city administrators and Fire Chief Chuck Norris have told Botany Hills residents a modern, larger station might be built elsewhere. Botany Hills, still known by some as West Covington, embraces the Ohio River’s shore between Covington’s riverfront and Ludlow.
But, officials promise, it will serve Botany Hills, just as the current one serves the city’s Lewisburg, Kenton Hills and MainStrasse neighborhoods. The station also is the first to respond to emergencies on the overcrowded Brent Spence Bridge and other parts of I-71/75 in Covington.
City Manager Larry Klein and the two city commissioners running for mayor – Steve Casper and Sherry Carran – don’t give the impression a decision on where to construct a $2.5 million to $3 million station is imminent.
Old-time fire house a bit cramped
There’s a nice, almost old-fashioned relationship between the fire house that has stood along Parkway Avenue since the Great Depression and the people it serves.
When not rushing to medical emergencies or fires, the firefighters sometimes sit out on the tiny front porch, or throw footballs with neighborhood kids.
“You’re right in the community,” said Engineer Craig Vogelpohl, who guided firefighter Ben Cawood’s backward path into the station after a run Thursday morning.
In an informal community outreach, there’s a Pepsi machine tucked inside the fire station’s single tall garage door that houses a 1996 Seagrave pumper truck. Especially during stretches when the mom-and-pop store space up the block is vacant, neighbors show up with their quarters to fuel their soft-drink habits, and maybe have a chat.
“The neighborhood is very attached to it,” Carran said. “Not only because it gives them a feeling of safety, but because there’s a history there, and they have a bond with the firefighters.”
City officials, including FiNorris, believe the time is near to build a fire station that can hold more than one fire vehicle, whose rear-view mirrors barely fit in the garage door. The fit is so tight that when shelves are filled, the truck’s passenger-side door can’t fully open, Norris says.
“You can’t miss by about a couple of inches,” said Cawood, after he finished backing the vehicle in recently. “You’ll take off a mirror.”
Why the delays?
Covington through the years has investigated at least a dozen locations, but in each case a location didn’t work out, either because the property was too small or the owners didn’t want to sell.
City leaders decided not to use eminent domain to force anybody to sell, City Manager Klein said.
The city also considered properties east of I-71/75, but had trouble finding a site without forcing a sale.
Now, two other obstacles stand in the way of buying a site: the city’s tight finances that have led to layoffs, and officials’ early deliberations of how best to provide emergency protection in the future.
Should Covington work much more closely with nearby departments, such as Ludlow’s? And if so, how might that affect where Covington positions its fire stations to guarantee the fastest response times?
Casper said he has talked informally with a Ludlow leader about that city’s fire department, staffed by volunteers, providing more emergency coverage to areas such as Botany Hills.
Another possibility is creating “a regional fire service,” Klein said. “It’s always a topic anywhere you go – civic leaders want to talk about regional approach to service.
“We don’t want to run out and spend $300,000 of taxpayer money on something that in five years we wished we’d have put that station somewhere else to be in a more strategic location based on a regional model,” Klein said.
Botany Hills resident Ray Kingsbury, a former neighborhood-association president, said he thinks residents would balk at being served by another department, especially a volunteer one such as Ludlow‘s.
“I think that’s probably a concern for some of the residents here,” Kingsbury said.
Casper and Carran said that while residents are very attached to having a fire station in their neighborhood, they will get better service from a modern one located farther away
On Thursday the pumper is staffed by a firefighter/medic, Brad Oberjohann. When that’s the case the pumper has the personnel and medical equipment to do everything an ambulance can except transport patients.
“If we’re able to create a new location that makes sense, they’ll end up with better service,” Casper said.
“It’s not quite as touchy-feely as having it right on that corner, but if we build something new, it’s not going to house one piece of equipment: It’s going to house multiple pieces of equipment.”