Fire District - Review fire service - November 12, 2005

Updating fire service

The first significant review of the Louisville Fire Department in 30 years calls for major changes, including closure of two aged firehouses and construction of nine new ones over the next 15 years at a cost of about $1.8 million each.
The $135,000 study by TriData, a Baltimore-based consulting firm headed by a 32-year firefighting veteran, on its face appears to be money well spent.

Louisville "deserves a modern fire department," Mayor Jerry Abramson said.

Of course it does, especially now that voters, by accepting city-county merger, have shown they're eager for modern government.

Though the changes the consultants recommended to improve fire protection in the urban services district won't be cheap, they may prove far less costly than holding onto an outdated status quo. Modernizing is overdue, given the fact that the increased use of smoke detectors and sprinkler systems has cut in half the number of structure fires in Louisville's urban core over the last 20 years.

Now, with the report in hand, Mayor Abramson's representatives will meet with and solicit input from personnel at all 22 firehouses. Input will also be solicited from the Neighborhood Fire Advisory Panels that are to be formed. Then, in the spring, the Mayor's 2006-07 budget will include a comprehensive propoal that he promises will require neither a tax increase nor any layoffs.

Change, of course, always raises fears and hackles, and not surprisingly, some firefighters and residents told reporters that they like things pretty much as they are.

Change also brings out political opportunists, and Republican Metro Councilman and mayoral candidate Kelly Downard stepped right up to fill the role.

Obviously looking for a wedge, he homed in on the consultants' recommendation that the fire department be reduced from 22 stations and 28 trucks to 17 stations and 24 front-line trucks.

"Whenever somebody tells me that we're going to downsize, that gives me cause for some concern," he said.

Imagine that. A Republican who's troubled by a proposal to make government more efficient and not raise taxes.

Let's hope the other council members do better, and put safety first, before politics.

Modernizing is overdue and "may prove far less costly than holding onto an outdated status quo."