On May 7, 2020 the United Government of Wyandotte County held a special session meeting and discussed the county administrator’s proposal to close the Fairfax 15 Fire Station, located in the heart of the Fairfax Industrial district. This decision was based on the need to save money in the budget and move the Fairfax 15 company to a new recently built fire station in the Piper district.
FIA was allowed time to give a presentation on “Why We Must Keep the Fairfax Fire Station” during this meeting.
With concerns of response times to fires, this decision has been met with opposition from businesses located within the Fairfax District. Here’s the Zoom-based session and the presentation can be found at the timestamp of 22:40.
Click here to view the proposal and details on this closing. Shortly after this presentation, FIA sent a follow-up letter to the Mayor, County Administrator, Fire Chief and Board of Commissioners, addressing the need to keep this station open and the response times to any fires within the district. FIA will continue to update our members as this discussion continues.
UPDATE: 5/19/2020
After the UG Special Session meeting and presentation by FIA opposing the closing of the Fairfax Fire Station on May 7, 2020, the Board of Commissioners suggested that the County Administrator and staff look further into the budget and see if is a different solution or at least discussion they could have with the governing body regarding adding a new fire company to staff the new Piper Fire Station or look at another fire company relocation as they work through their whole budget this month. Previously, the UG staff had recommended relocating the Fairfax Station Fire Company to staff the new Piper station which FIA and many others strongly opposed.
This is a very challenging fiscal time for the UG WyCo/KCK government and the community and they will be looking at many service reductions.
At this time, a follow-up date has not been set for public discussion on this topic, though it is likely this will get scheduled in the near future, since the new Piper Station 12 is scheduled to be ready to open in June and it is likely to be discussed as part of our budget workshops.
FIA will keep our businesses updated as we move forward in this discussion. FIA would like to THANK Mayor Alvey, the UG Board of Commissioners, County Administrator and staff for making a special exception and allowing time for FIA to present their reasons for opposing during the special session meeting and realizing the need for our Fairfax Fire Station.
Feel free to contact Melissa Clark, FIA Executive Director if you have any questions or concerns on this proposal.