JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Jacksonville is on the brink of closing three fire stations if the City Council's Finance Committee recommendations of a two percent cut take effect.
Jacksonville fire chief Marty Senterfitt says that would likely happen if he has to find ways to meet his budget. The fire chief's plan includes closing Station 14 on Herschel Street in the Avondale area, Station 12 on Atlantic Blvd across from the St. Nicholas neighborhood and Station 11 on Talleyrand Avenue on Jacksonville's Eastside, which is across the street from the port.
Chief Senterfitt doesn't want to close the three stations and hopes to find an alternative, but he sees this as the best way to deal with the proposed budget cuts.
"We are just millions of dollars short in our budget and in order to operate I have to come up with the dollars somewhere and really the only way I can do that unless the city council is able to find other avenues, other means, is by closing fire stations. "
Closing stations 11, 12 and 14 will have the least impact Senterfitt says, as all three stations are within 4-5 miles from other stations. "But it will certainly will increase response times."
Jerry Davenport grew up in the St. Nicholas neighborhood across from Station 12 . She says she would be devastated if the station closes.
"I have lived here, except for 15 years, all my life. And it has been there. They have saved I would guess four or five people in this community in St. Nicholas proper, from strokes, heart attacks. And we have gotten to know the gentlemen, we take stuff down there from time to time, particularly at Christmas time when the fruit is growing," Davenport says.
She even says when the neighborhood holds its annual neighborhood Christmas party, the station brings Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus to the event if they are not out on a call.
Davenport says she feels safe knowing they are there, less than two minutes away.
"There will come a time if we close a station, that someone will die, a house will burn down, then the question will be asked, 'could we have had a different outcome if that station would have been opened?' And that is the challenge I face," said Senterfitt.
The Jacksonville City Council has the rest of the month to pass the city budget, and the council could come up with amendments that could keep these fire stations open , but that remains to be seen.
