Alexandra Bocian (right), head of the Langston Brown Civic Association and Richard Lolich, head of the Old Dominion Civic Association, at the May 12 meeting.
Attendees at the penultimate meeting on Fire Station 8 shook their heads. After months of research and meetings, the old questions of “how to define response time” were coming up again. Since the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) talks about the ideal response time of four minutes, why was Arlington County aiming for six minutes or less? Has the county approved a six-minute travel time as an acceptable standard, and is it travel time or travel time plus turnout time that add up to response time?
Finally, the group agreed, their charge had to involve the only aspect of response time they could affect by changing location or keeping the current site was “travel time from the time the engine leaves the station.”
Noah Simon guided the group forward during the 3 hour and 20 minute long meeting. He reminded the group that response times — no matter how defined — clearly needed improvement, across the county, and they needed to vote on whether moving Fire Station 8 to the only possible option at 26th and Old Dominion, versus keeping it at 4845 Lee Highway, would improve the travel time enough to warrant a move. Travel time, from Lee Highway or from 26th and Old Dominion, still hasn’t been measured in real terms, but Acting Fire Chief Joe Reshetar noted that the difference between the two might likely not amount to more than 30 seconds less travel time.
The bottom line for the task force was that even with a move, there would still be a significant portion of far north Arlington that would not get into the 4-6 minute “ideal” window. The EMS unit moving to Fire Station 8 could improve response times on medical emergencies.
As the task force continued to debate well into the first hour, Simon pursued the goal of voting, resorting to auctioneering skills to get votes accomplished. Once the response time issue was resolved, the group began to debate the second major aspect of their findings, the cost factor of moving the station versus keeping it at 4845 Lee Highway. While it is more expensive to leave the station at 4845 Lee Highway, particularly if the fuel tanks are moved, the cost, especially if cost savings measures are made to reduce the temporary station costs, would not be significant enough to make it fiscally unsound to keep the station there.
During public commentary, Arlington resident Betsy Alexander asked the task force to keep a broader view; it seemed the task force had taken a very narrow view of their charge — to select a station location with a reduced response time, whereas what the county had in fact asked the task force to do was to come up with creative solutions, improvements in response times, and address the impact on the communities. Alexander asked the task force not to limit their consideration of factors that are less tangible than travel times.
Alexandra Bocian of the Langston-Brown Civic Association also noted the issue was delicate for a lot of communities. She acknowledged that whatever decision was made, it was clear to those communities how much time and care went into the task force effort. The task force’s approach indicated the impacts on each community had been considered and taken seriously.
Terry Dean of the Chain Bridge Forest Association noted her group had asked for, but not received, a seat on the task force. She indicated there were in fact residents of North Arlington who had issues with emergency medical services to north Arlington. “That’s our issue,” she said, “We’ve never even had a fire.” Dean had had her own personal experience with a failure of Arlington emergency services personnel to reach her in a timely way.
Richard Lolich closed out the public commentary with a retrospective look at two years ago. People showing up at that first meeting said, “This isn’t going to make any difference. This is just wallpaper.” But those same people now saw this as a fair and open process. He cautioned those who would vote to remember they would be deciding on services well into the future since a fire station’s life span is about 35 years.
In the final hour, members of the task force, all citizen volunteers, made their statements and cast their votes. There were comments by several on the task force who said they had come to the first meeting believing a move to Old Dominion was the right answer, but voted against a move because the evidence was overwhelming that not only would a move not improve service to some areas in the north but as Arlington County changes, would very likely diminish service to the southern areas of Lee Highway. Some referred to the historical aspect of the station, and some said their decision, despite their residence in the Hall’s Hill area, had nothing to do with the history, and everything to do with what made sense in the long term. One person abstained from voting because there were “such good arguments on both sides.”
Rodney Turner said, at the end of the evening, that the task force had taken their charge very seriously and he hoped the county could see how much effort had gone into addressing every issue. The fact that the vote was to keep the station in its current site, he said, reflected the information the task force examined which clearly indicated the need for a fire station close to higher density populations. Turner was one of the members who advocated for an EMS team to respond to the emergency calls coming out of northernmost Arlington.
The next, and final, meeting of the task force on Station #8 will be held May 26. Residents can review the website at https://projects.arlingtonva.us/projects/fire-station-8/
and comment on the matrix of pros and cons for each location.