Fire Chief: Build New Station

When his turn came up at Thursday's budget session, Fire Chief Frank Tidwell took the occasion to pitch for something really big - a brand new fire station in the East End.

Addressing the council members as possible "agents of change," Tidwell said the Fire Division could be "on the cutting edge of the 21st Century" by working with the Union County Improvement Authority to replace a dilapidated, 125-year-old station with one that can accommodate today's technology, apparatus and staffing.

According to a news article Tidwell passed out, the UCIA built three new stations and renovated a fourth as part of a $25 million modernization of the Linden Fire Department.

The picturesque, tile-roofed  fire house on South Avenue has a floor too weak to accommodate new fire equipment, is not handicap-accessible, had a cracked foundation and a failing roof, Tidwell  said. He proposed acquiring an adjacent parking lot and tearing down the station, which would yield a footprint big enough to accommodate the modern facility he envisions.

The new station would likely improve the dispatch rate designation that affects property insurance, he added.

Tidwell rejected the idea of saving the building as a museum.

"Tear it down," he said.

Councilman Cory Storch said the Planning Board was in the process of creating a Transit Zone and said the land would become very valuable. He suggested swapping for another parcel of land.

"This is a real Planning Board issue," Storch added.

Tidwell said he had spoken to Planning Board Chairman Ken Robertson and other officials about his proposal. Citizens Budget Advisory Committee member Jeanette Criscione questioned how the city would pay for such a project.

"That is a very good question," Tidwell answered, but noted that Linden was able to come up with a "creative plan."

With that, the discussion turned back to issues more germane to the purpose of the budget session, which was to look at requests for operating costs. Council President Adrian Mapp reminded Tidwell that .the council wanted to use a system developed under former Council President Annie McWilliams' leadership, in which all presenters at budget deliberation sessions provided the same kinds of information, such as historical data, five-year trends, metrics and charts.

"We have all that," Fire Lt. Bernard Blake said, but added they only had one copy.

The normal nuts-and-bolts talks also suffered from the recent transitions in City Hall. When a question arose over discrepancies in staffing numbers for the Police Division, budget consultant David Kochel said when he was acting city administrator in late 2011, he handled the "other expense" budget requests, while former Chief Finance Officer Ron Zilinski worked on the salary lines. Zilinski resigned on Jan. 31, causing the city to rely on a part-time, interim CFO while the administration again searches for a full-time CFO.

Sections of budget spreadsheets were empty and others were confused Thursday, due in part to the city's use of a six-month "transition year" to shift from a July1-June 30 budget year to a calendar year for 2012. Kochel, only hired as a consultant on Monday, promised to do his best to assemble the correct numbers for the council and the budget committee.

(More later on the Public Safety budget if I don't escape to the back yard or to Westfield -  I need a break.)

--Bernice