Gloria Ferris

Last Thursday, I attended a meeting of the Public Safety Committee.  We had a good showing of people attending from the area given the time of the committee meeting. I am going to give a short list of attendees and if I have forgotten someone it is not intentional, but I want everyone to know that there is broad support for saving Ladder 42.  Here goes,  the principal from Wm. Cullen Bryant was there, Mr. Dwyer (?) who owns a business in Old Brooklyn, Jay Gardner, Judith Pindell, and Lori Peterson from OBCDC, Matt Russ, Roger Bundy, and several firefighters that live in the neighborhood.

The Public Safety Committee Chairperson Kevin Conwell, Ward 9 Councilman couldn’t have been more supportive or gracious in his handling of the discussion.  Councilman Kelly served as acting Chair.  Councilman Cummins stressed many points that have come up in neighborhood meetings as well as the Community meeting we had–the fact that the overall safety of the community is being compromised because of the domino effect; the fact that the firefighters in our city have worked without a contract for five years…

All of the committee members are very aware of the concerns that we have concerning the demise of Ladder 42.

Councilwoman Brady cited the explosion in her Ward last year where fire and emergency crews responded within three minutes– not the four minute response time seen as adequate.  She questioned that if that had been the case during the crisis in her neighborhood she was not sure the outcome would be the same.  

Councilman Polensek questioned how long the residents of Lee-Harvard, Collinwood, Old Brooklyn, and West Park can continue to absorb these cuts in staffing while more and more $$ pour into downtown, University Circle and other places.  He asked when will enough be enough.  When will these city residents walk away from the city that they have supported for so long.

Councilman Conwell paid Old Brooklyn a huge compliment saying that our area is a hardworking, taxpaying community that the city cannot afford to lose.

The principal of Wm. Cullen Bryant said that she had a hard time explaining to her students who are having emergency preparedness drills this month when they ask her what will happen if there is an emergency and our Ladder Truck is gone. She asked the committee members and administration officials if they had any suggestions on how she should explain to her students.

Mr. Dwyer said that had he known that the Ladder Truck would be taken away from Old Brooklyn he would have thought twice before buying property and moving his business into Old Brooklyn. 

Matt Russ gave a very moving speech about the safety and welfare of his friends, neighbors, and community. Roger Bundy spoke to the Phoenix Study and how it fell woefully short.  He cited specific examples and fielded several questions from the committee members.

One very interesting fact that came out of this meeting for me was that the fire stations do not have fax machines, do not have computers, and that they still use carbon paper to write out their reports.  Where in the world do they get carbon paper?  And how much does that cost?  Also many of the heating and air conditioning units are in disrepair. 

The bottom line, folks, is money. Everyone at the meeting empathizes with the situation surrounding Ladder 42. The administration officials, councilpeople, the fire administration–all realize that losing Ladder 42 is not a good outcome for the Old Brooklyn Neighborhood, but no one knows where the money will come from to keep the Ladder at Station #42.

It is imperative that we all attend the community meeting Thursday, April 6th at 6:30 p.m. at Corpus Christi Church Hall.  We must support our councilpeople who are tirelessly working to keep Ladder 42.  We must demand that the city administration make safety a number one priority and if other programs must receive less money then so be it.  Our safety can no longer be compromised.

All of the councilpeople around that table talked about how they would be having this conversation again concerning where to cut into the safety net that we have in this city because the budget constraints are not going to go away.  In fact, for the first time in the history of the city, the city will be receiving $800,000 less in real estate taxes this year and the city income tax revenue is flat.

Support our Community attend this vital meeting concerning our quality of life in the City of Cleveland.          

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Cleveland, Old Brooklyn, developing community, growing an economy, quality of life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.