The City of Clinton took the unusual step last Monday of presenting an idea to the public prior to bringing it before council. The idea - abandoning the current fire substation on Springdale Drive and renovating the city garage on Pine Street to a fire station - was met with a resounding “No.”
The City is spending $7.5 Million in bond money to renovate the Police-Fire Station in the former City Hall on North Broad Street. Within that budget is $750,000 to spend on putting sleeping quarters in a substation in the South Broad Street, other-side-of-the-tracks area. Firefighters have to have another place for 24 hour city coverage before the total gut-job on the North Broad Street station can begin - renovating the former National Guard Armory garage on Pine Street is an easy fix for that dilemma. Renovating the current substation is more problematic - it doesn’t have enough land, it would require taking the adjacent city water tank off-line for at least 3 months, and truck still would have to be backed into the fire bays across a 4-lane highway.
City Manager Tom Brooks said one way or the other, he is going to see to it that this action does not continue to happen, against the wishes of firefighters - “I am going to listen to our people,” he said.
The April 3 public hearing was “fact-finding,” Brooks said. Renovating the Pine Street garage is “an option - doesn’t sound like it’s a good option.”
Speakers told Brooks to buy land somewhere else on Springdale Drive, the city bypass for Highways 72 and 56 which includes an entrance for Bailey Memorial Stadium, the closed Renfro plant, Hospice of Laurens County, an entrance to Eastside Elementary School and a back entrance to Clinton High School.
A subdivision is being built on a road to a former light-industrial-zoned area on Springdale, and an entrance road to the Whitten Center property, now deeded to the City of Clinton by the State, also intersects Springdale Drive.
Where it reconnects to Hwy 56 Business, Springdale Drive abuts the entrance to Clinton’s under development recreation complex (just beyond the Clinton Presbyterian Community).
The bypass was chosen for a fire substation in the 1980s for “very good reasons that are now being ignored,” Brooks was told.
Pine Street has a newly renovated park and adjoins an elite Clinton subdivision. Fire trucks would have to exit onto South Broad Street where two main highways merge (currently without a traffic light), and even with a light, drivers would have to be sure “distracted” motorists actually would stop at a new traffic light, Brooks was told.
Others complained about the City’s lack of transparency - word about the meeting got around on the Friday before the Monday meeting. The City’s newspaper ad referenced tax map numbers, but the City’s Facebook post specified the discussion about Springdale Drive and Pine Street.
Fire Chief Jeremy Pruitt said at the Pine Street location there is plenty of room to expand, and that is not so at the Springdale Drive location. People attending the meeting urged the council to approach the adjoining Tallwood Apartments for a land donation. That growth is coming, the audience was told, as 30 new homes have been sold recently “on this side of the tracks,” the audience was told.
Pruitt said he expects overnight firefighters to be out of bed and in a truck in 2 minutes; the Pine Street location, as renovated, is better for making that happen, he said.
This April 3 window for a public hearing was opened because Clinton City Council rescheduled its normal first Monday meeting to the second Monday (April 10) because the schools were on spring break, and some on council may want to spend that time with their children. The idea was not on the April 10 agenda.
Harold Coleman’s Hickory Street house adjoins what would be the rear of a Pine Street fire substation. He said, “We need a park more than we need a new fire station. There is land out on Springdale - you could buy 4 acres - what you’ve drawn there can be placed anywhere.”
Charlotte Strickland said, “The proposed location on Pine Street couldn’t be a worse place. (South Broad is) very congested, and that will slow response times. We need to renovate what we have downtown, five to eight years we’ve been talking about it. Finish one project.”
Brooks stressed that the City is looking for options - “Hey, if it didn’t work, we heard from you and we’ll take that into consideration.”
