Fire task force OK with putting Station 3 move on 'back burner'

       Putting a proposed Fire Station 3 move on the “back burner” gained a consensus of the Service Improvement Task Force (SITF) at its meeting March 17.
       The idea, pushed by Bob and Rose Kliewer (also members of the Organization of Westside Neighbors), introduces a chronological aspect to a three-fire-station relocation plan previously seen as a “package” deal, as Colorado Springs Fire Department Battalion Chief Clark Stidham put it earlier in the meeting.
       The meeting was the fourth for SITF, a 25-member citizens group set up by City Council. The group was charged with helping Chief Manuel Navarro prepare a recommendation to council (scheduled April 26); he had asked council in January to use Public Service Sales Tax proceeds to relocate Station 3 as well as Station 1 (downtown) and Station 8 (at Airport and Chelton roads) farther east to help balance citywide response times.
       Station 3 has been located at 922 W. Colorado Ave. since 1950.
       Under the March 17 task force thinking, the immediate focus should be on Stations 8 and 1 because they need to move the farthest (though less than two miles) while Station 3’s current location is adequate for the time being to fulfill its related downtown coverage requirement.
       “We can put Station 3 on the back burner,” Bob Kliewer said.
       After initial uncertainty, Stidham, chairing the meeting, supported the idea. “You may be on to something,” he said. “We can concentrate on 1 and 8.”
       The task force is meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays at the Fire Department administration building on Printers Parkway.

Westside Pioneer article