"We simply don’t have enough firefighters to put on all of our trucks," says Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran (and old friend of this website and The Secret List) …"so what to you do? Blackouts and brownouts." Clearly Chief Cochran has his hands full with a Mayor that is out of control..and a Mayor that has lost touch with the fact that FIRE & EMS SHOULD NOT be cut along the same lines as other city services. Absolutely amazing. And she will get away with it up until the point that something horrible happens. Wait and see. It is predictable.
Chief Cochran made that clear statement to a gathering of about 50 anxious home and business owners yesterday morning. He and many of his staff met with them at Fire Station 23 to explain why he’s shutting it down Christmas Day. The Chief explained that he’s cut his department’s budget three times over the past year because of the city’s budget crisis. He permanently closed Fire Station 7 in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood last summer, sparking protests from that community.
He has now ordered Station 23 shuttered and a Truck unit at Station 12 in East Atlanta parked at least until the end of the 2009 budget year in June. Those are the "blackouts". The "brownouts" will be occasionally taking an engine at possibly any station out of service on a rotating basis when manpower is low.
Cochran told the audience the latest service cutbacks were necessary to meet Mayor Shirley Franklin’s order earlier this week for a 10% furlough of all city employees. Franklin ordered the move to help make up a $50-million hole in the budget.
Even after a detailed presentation explaining the cuts in detail, the Chief also admitted, "there is no amount of information that I could share with you as citizens of Atlanta that’s gonna console you and make you feel better."
Although he defended the city’s high insurance ranking to the audience, Cochran also admitted there’s always a possibility slower response times might lower that rating and mean higher insurance premiums for property owners. State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine expressed that concern in a letter to Mayor Franklin two days ago.
Saturday’s crowd was polite, even grateful to the fire department brass, but some were frustrated at how the city’s leaders let things get to this point.
"Why did you put us in this jeopardy?" asked resident Wanda Steele, "Why didn’t you assess $10 to every homeowner or something?"
Several city council members also attended the meeting. At least one, Felicia Moore, admitted the council’s denying a tax increase request from the mayor last summer was probably a mistake in hindsight.
But she said she might vote differently next summer. "If this economy doesn’t get better," Moore told the audience, "there’s no way this council or the mayor cannot pass a significant property tax increase."
So not only are the Berkeley Park neighborhood and many others throughout Atlanta facing slower fire service, but perhaps even higher taxes in 2009.
