Hot under the collar

Chico Fire Department Chief Jim Beery’s decision to close Fire Station 5 for the next two months has provoked some scowls.

The CN&R received an emailed press release announcing a scheduled protest for today (Thursday, May 3) at the station beginning at 3 p.m. The press release, submitted by Anna Swenson, blamed the closure on the Chico City Council, which in her words “has decided it’s more important to retain staff from the defunct redevelopment department rather than keep fire stations open, keep fire fighters on duty and keep our city safe.”

Actually, the closure is a result of City Manager Dave Burkland’s directive to the Fire Department to cut expenses by $95,000 before the end of the fiscal year, which happens at the end of June. The council had nothing to do with it. The fire chief decided how to achieve the savings, Burkland said.

Those savings will be realized by redirecting the three firefighters who operate out of Fire Station 5 to two other of the city’s five stations, where they will work shifts that would otherwise by covered by crew members working overtime.

“The chief is very good with numbers and how many shifts are needed,” Burkland said. “Of the three firefighters at the temporarily closed Station 5, one will become available to cover shifts at any other station while the other two will be assigned to cover shifts at Stations 2 and 4. The idea is to cover shifts that would otherwise be overtime.”

Chief Beery was unavailable for comment for this story. Burkland said Beery picked Station 5 because of its location at Manzanita and East avenues near the entrance to Upper Bidwell Park.

“If he could, the chief would locate Station 5 to another part of the city,” Burkland said.

That station was built in anticipation of the Bidwell Ranch housing project that had been in works for a number of years under different names. Early plans in the 1980s called for 2,900 housing units on the 750 acres of land. The final project, dubbed Bidwell Ranch, was a scaled down to 1,500 units. But the developer went bankrupt and the city purchased the property in 1996 and turned it into open space.

Burkland suspects the chief sees the station as the one most justified for temporary closure.

“The chief’s spent time in Portland and Denver,” Burkland said. “He believes in putting things in the middle rather than on the edge.”

Burkland said balancing the budget is both necessary and immediate.

“We need to balance the budget’s general fund,” he said. “We have to make the shifts we can now, before the end of the fiscal year. We can’t go back and do it.”

He said that while cutting overtime is a good way to cut costs, overtime does serve a purpose. “[It] provides us with a greater level of service using the same number of people,” he said.

City Council candidate and local business owner Toby Schindelbeck is also joining the protest against the station’s closure. He is promoting a petition via Facebook to get the station reopened.

The petition notes that the Fire Department is under the budget set up by the city manager and council. “Yet, the Chico City Council and City Manager Dave Burkland cut $95,000 from the Chico fire budget,” the petition reads. It mentions five paintings hanging in the Municipal Building.

“Tell the Chico City Council that we should NOT spend $74,000 on 5 paintings for City Hall when we need only $95,000 to keep Station 5 open and the public safer. Tell the Chico City Council that we demand that our tax dollars go to Public Safety before higher salaries for any public employee.”

City Finance Director Jennifer Hennessy said Schindelbeck had recently asked her in an email about cost of the art in the Municipal Center. She said those costs, none of which came from the city’s general fund, included the large stained-glass artwork across on the third-floor window called “Chico Foothills.” It was installed during the construction of the building at a cost of $45,000. There is a large mural on the first floor called “Compact Images,” with a price tag of $20,000. The third floor features a couple of sculptures called “Let’s Rock,” which were donated but valued at $6,000. There is also a piece of art called “Rub-A-Dub,” which cost $1,000. Hennessy said there have been no art purchases in recent years.

For his part, Burkland said he had recently met with the firefighters’ union.

“The meeting went OK, and I understand their concerns,” he said. “This is what the union does. It fights for the workers.”