Standing Room Only For Ladder 42 Meeting
It was standing room only at Corpus Christi Hall Tuesday night. Councilman Kevin Kelley Ward 16 and our councilman Brian Cummins from Ward 15 led the meeting. Fire Chief Stubbs was there with three assistant chiefs; Interim Safety Marty Flask attended; former fire chief Kevin Garrity flew in for the meeting; State of Ohio Representatives Shirley Smith and Annie Keys were there. Over three hundred neighbors, businesspeople, firefighters, policemen, and EMS workers came. Mayor Frank Jackson was unable to attend due to another engagement. All of them were there to engage in a dialogue
on the safety of our neighborhoods and the city.
Folks, if I know one thing now that I didn’t know then, it is this–this issue is BIG! The Ladder 42 “brown out” is only the tip of the iceberg. (Really, folks, I think they need to find an alternative terminology for what it is they’re doing here, at Ladder Company 42.) Questions were asked and answers were given, but the answers given only gave rise to more questions. And on and on it went until 9 p.m. The two-thirds of the iceberg under water is the SAFETY of the WHOLE CITY.
Before we discuss the browning out of Ladder Company 42, we need to know this fact: Safety Director Marty Flask stated that Mayor Jackson wanted us to know that the “browning out” of Ladder 42 is not imminent. A full review will be conducted before the final decision is made in mid-April.
I wanted to paraphrase former Fire Chief Garrity’s remarks as well because his comments frame the issue facing Fire Chief Stubbs and his seven assistant fire chiefs. Essentially, Garrity said that the national response time standard for an engine company is FOUR minutes, and SIX minutes for a ladder company. The city is not providing the dollars that the fire chief needs to do his job.
When Chief Stubbs spoke, he first wanted everyone to know that no firefighter, including himself, wants to see a company “brown out” and that any plan that came out of his office would adhere to “1710.” (I learned later that this is how the national fire-safety standards are referred to in firefighter circles).
There are huge traffic issues that do not appear to have been taken into consideration when making the decision to “brown out” Ladder 42—the closing of the Fulton Road Bridge for two years, the resurfacing of Denison Avenue, the Jennings Road reconstruction, the impending ODOT project on I-71, and the opening of Steelyard Commons in 2007.
Since our Ladder Company 20 will be the next in line to back up Engine 42, I asked these questions: “ It is my understanding that our Ladder Company is known as a first responder what does that mean? And when ladder #20 is responding to an Old Brooklyn call, who is my backup?” No one sitting around me thought that my questions were answered adequately because our Ladder #20 covers I-71 and I-490 as well as Metro Hospital and some of downtown, so it often is out on a call and wouldn’t even be available for Old Brooklyn. The answer was a vague, noncommital “the next available ladder.” I learned later that there is NO strategic plan in place for the city of Cleveland for the deployment of fire equipment.
An Old Brooklyn resident, Norm Ezzie (www.storminnorm.com), asked what plans are in place for preventing fires, given the aging housing stock in the Old Brooklyn neighborhoods. I loved this comment of Norm’s: “I refuse to be disposable!” When you stop and think about it, his question and comment pertain to the city as a whole.
Another Old Brooklyn resident who is also a Cleveland firefighter stated that he agrees with Mayor Jackson’s vision of wanting to make Cleveland great again, but he had a few suggestions for Mayor Jackson to help him find his way. One suggestion was to focus on the established middle-class neighborhoods in the city, to enhance the services to these neighborhoods, to support the efforts of these residents of Cleveland, and to promote these neighborhoods to the outlying suburbs as good places to live, and then to build out from there rather than trying to build new neighborhoods in downtown Cleveland and ignoring the foundation of the city already in place. I have not done this man’s suggestions justice, but I agree with him wholeheartedly. I may be a bit biased because this firefighter is not bound by residency laws but CHOOSES to remain in the city. He is not alone; there are a lot of us here, and we want to stay.
It appears that the main reason for suggesting the “brown out” of Ladder 42 is a 2004 consultant’s report requested by the Cleveland Public Safety Director. I certainly don’t know much about this report because even Councilman Kelley is still waiting for a copy of it through the Freedom of Information Act. Word has it that there is a clandestine copy out on the street, but here is what I have been able to find out about the study. The consultants are from Phoenix— Kevin Roche, the assistant to the Phoenix fire chief and Charles N. Hood, deputy fire chief. They visited Cleveland for two days. During that time, they talked to the fire chief, the safety director, members of city council, and the president of city council, The Vanguards, Local 93, and all in all visited four fire stations in the city of Cleveland. One of those stations was Station 42. I understand that someone is presently working on dissecting that study. Consultant studies usually reflect the conclusion that the person or entity paying for the study wants. I am not sure that the safety of our residents should rely on such a study when there are self-studies that can be utilized by municipalities to make sure that their citizens are safe.
The way I see it the safety and welfare of Clevelanders should be the number one consideration when our mayor and our city council members sit down to make decisions. There should be 44 fire companies in the city of Cleveland. Four are already “browned out”–
Ladder 42 would be the fifth. How many of the men assigned to that “browned out” equipment have been reassigned? How many will be reassigned? The population of Cleveland has dwindled, but the geographic area of the city has not. Therefore, it still takes time to get to a fire from other stations still open in other parts of the city. Oh–and the response times I mentioned earlier those are based on 20 mi./hr on any city street chosen as a route to a fire. As I said earlier, this issue is huge, and we need to stay on top of it and get involved.
January 12th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Gloria - you have me on pins and needles following this. Cheers to you for getting this going and I’m praying that no brown outs are necessary. How frightening.
And, if I may be so progressive as to suggest this (or just stupid), what’s so ironic to me and says Regionalism over and over? News the Pepper Pike is able to afford to train all of its CITIZENS in CPR. Not that I don’t want to know CPR, but when there are places like Old Brooklyn facing the loss of first responder services, the inequity of it all. Yeah, sure, it’s my taxes. But I’d happily designate that money to an effort to create a longterm solution so that neighborhoods like yours won’t go unprotected.
Sometimes the world makes so little sense.
January 12th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
What stood out so glaringly to me during the meeting was the incisive, thoughtful questions that the residents posed, versus the extremely vague, patting-on-the-head answers our current officials gave. Acting Safety Director Flask said at one point that the fate of Ladder 42 isn’t just a question of budgets, it’s a question of safety. But when people asked why, then, is the city considering browning out Ladder 42, the only answer Flask or anyone else gave was, “lack of money.” As several residents pointed out, the city wastes a lot of money in areas that aren’t vital, so there’s no reason that the mayor and finance staff can’t find the money for assuring the safety of Old Brooklyn and surrounding neighborhoods. Someone at the meeting mentioned the “domino effect,” and that’s something the city doesn’t seem to be considering at all. Not only the area covered by Ladder 42 will be affected by the browning-out. If Ladder 20 must respond to an emergency in Ladder 42’s coverage area, that leaves Ladder 20’s area unprotected, and if other ladder companies must respond to a fire in Ladder 20’s area, then their areas go unprotected. This is a very real danger, considering the number of emergencies that each company responds to every day.
I agree, Gloria, that we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg, but I think the iceberg is bigger than the city’s safety. I think the most important part that never shows above the surface is the city government’s lack of accountability to the people who elected them. How can it be that the mayor can say, “We aren’t going to spend money to keep Ladder 42 in operation?” It’s his job to prioritize so that essential services (those involved in the safety of residents most of all) aren’t slighted. There’s no way he should be able to make the decision to endanger Cleveland residents. And it looks as if, finally, the people of this city are angry enough about government arrogance to fight back.
January 17th, 2006 at 9:55 am
The next meeting very well be our very own “Alamo”….after reading todays Plain Dealer Metro Section(Jan17thpageB3)….a “closed door meeting” with our elected councilman not having access to it? The meeting that I am speaking of here is the planned-upcoming one with the two consulants from Phoenix Arizona!!Imagine that,two cowboy fire-fighters that can just hobble in here and comprehend it all…in a matter of days! My fear is here that both councilmen will be intimidated by the Jackson Hit-Squad (ala like the dayz of Frank Nitty,the Capone enforcer)—–My question is,will the constituents of Wards 15&16 just fold up or stand up?I welcome your comments at http://www.storminnorm.com