The city’s planning a new fire station on UVA property on Fontaine Avenue to help cover the University and neighborhoods in the southwestern part of town, but several city planning commissioners want to make sure UVA is going to help pay for it.
While discussing upcoming capital projects at the December 11 planning commission meeting, commissioners Cheri Lewis and Michael Farruggio wondered aloud if the city’s getting enough from the University. The city is budgeting $9.7 million between 2008 and 2011 for the Fontaine station.
 This temporary location on Ivy Road houses a city fire engine that will move to the new Fontaine station when it’s built. |
"Not at all do I question the need for a fire house," said Farruggio. "What I question is $10 million over the years for a fire house that will serve the residents better but that will also serve the University better. …When we have to put a fire house on their property, I want to caution Council that we don’t pay a disproportionate amount."
So far this year, about 665 of 4,800 calls have been in response to UVA, roughly 14 percent. The University does contribute roughly $150,000 a year to the city’s $8 million fire budget, an arrangement far more generous than universities in other Virginia towns, noted the former fire chief and current city councilor, Julian Taliaferro, who made sure the Planning Commission was aware of the need for this station.
"The city hasn’t done anything for fire facilities for 45 years," said Taliaferro. "So things have changed in the last 45 years. We’ve got to do something."
Response times for the area run about six minutes, compared to the four- or five-minute level that the fire department would like, says Britt Grimm, the city’s deputy fire chief. "We’re anticipating that this traffic issue is going to continue to grow, and that those numbers are going to stretch out even farther," says Grimm.
As for the idea that the county should pay, Grimm notes that the city and the county have a contractual agreement, in place until 2010, that addresses the costs for calls answered across boundaries. "We’ve always pretty consistently responded back and forth to each other across jurisdictional lines. We don’t expect that being an issue."
There are no concrete plans for the Fontaine station yet, which doesn’t even have a location. UVA and the city are in talks to decide where along Fontaine Avenue the station will go, though the University is committed to donating land for the facility, according to UVA spokesperson Carol Wood. Accordingly, the $9.7 million doesn’t include land costs.
"I’m confident that we’re going to come out with a win-win deal," says Mayor David Brown.
One facet of the new building that the city is exploring is having dormitories to encourage student volunteers. Grimm himself lived as a student in a fire station for two years in Fairfax Station while he was going to school in exchange for two nights of coverage.
"It worked out to the advantage of the fire company," Grimm says. "I was required to be there two nights, but since I was there every night, I wound up running calls every night. The only thing I had to be careful of is that I’d get up in the morning, look out the window, see that it was snowing or raining and figure, eh, well, I’d rather stick around here and run fire calls all morning rather than go to my math or science class. So that was a little detrimental to my studies."
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
