It doesn’t seem like a lot to ask
– that the city keep its long-standing promise to build and
staff the modest and much-needed third fire station planned for the
Northwest Quad.
It doesn’t seem like a lot to ask – that the city keep its long-standing promise to build and staff the modest and much-needed third fire station planned for the Northwest Quad.
But due to the state budget cuts and questionable city priorities, building the station, but not staffing it is the situation facing citizens and the Gilroy Fire Department. City leaders asked Gilroy Fire Department Chief Jeff Clet – as they did all other department heads – to identify ways to reduce GFD spending by 10 percent. The only way Clet can see to make that cut is to leave the Sunrise Fire Station – planned to serve Northwest Quad residents and due to open next March – empty.
“Essentially we couldn’t do it – we’d be forced into a position not to be able to staff it,” Clet told reporter Jonathan Jeisel. “We’d have inadequate personnel to staff it with what’s being proposed. I don’t believe we could put a vehicle out there at all.”
This is an utterly unacceptable situation, and we urge the citizens of Gilroy to contact their councilmen to tell them to get their priorities straight.
The city hasn’t built a new fire station in nearly three decades – since the 1970s. The northwest quad, which the fire station planned for 880 Sunrise Drive would serve, has grown by leaps and bounds. This growth was planned and directed by city administrators, planning commissioners and members of city council.
Response time to the Northwest Quad is slower than it should be. The fire department cannot currently meet its goal to answer 95 percent of code 3 calls within five minutes. Northwest Quad residents need – and deserve – this level of service.
Through home builders, these Gilroyans paid development impact fees that will cover the cost to build the new station – and it’s unlikely any of the homeowners thought those fees would be used to build a fire station that would sit empty and idle.
Compared to the $25-million price tag attached to the city’s lavish plans for a new police station, the $3.2 million to be spent for the Sunrise station is downright affordable.
It may seem obvious but it bears pointing out: A fire station without equipment and firefighters is about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse-kicking contest.
No matter what it takes – reducing the size of the police force, pay reductions for city administrators, or making some difficult cuts in city expense items – the city is responsible to the citizens of the Northwest Quad to not only build, but to fully staff the Sunrise Fire Station.
Contact Information:
• Mayor Tom Springer, 353 E. 10th St. #227, Gilroy, CA 95020; call 842-0693; fax 847-7931; or e-mail ts*******@ci.us
• Councilman Peter Arellano, Mayor Protempore, 7100 Potomac Place, Gilroy, CA 95020; call 842-2974; or e-mail pa*******@ci.us
• Councilman Robert Dillon, 295 Victoria Drive, Gilroy, CA 95020; call 847-0337(work) or 842-6702 (home); fax 847-0338 (fax) ; or e-mail bd*****@ci.us
• Councilman Craig Gartman, P.O. Box 839, Gilroy, CA 95021; call 607-4550 or e-mail cg******@ci.us
• Councilman Charles S. Morales, P.O. Box 123, Gilroy, CA 95021; call 842-0484; page 682-8980; or e-mail: cm******@ci.us
• Councilman Al Pinheiro, 190 First St., Gilroy, CA 95020; call 848-6202 (home) or 842-4619 (work, 9-5 weekdays); or e-mail: ap*******@ci.us
• Councilman Roland Velasco, 1555 Hecker Pass Highway #H202, Gilroy, CA 95020; phone or fax 842-2141; or e-mail: ro***********@ho*****.com
