The Irving Fire House No. 4 Informational Meeting held last Wednesday evening was not a forum to give information to the City Government as it turned out to be.
The City Manager, the Mayor and all but one of the Council were absent from the meeting. The only Council Member present was Tom Spink, representative for Place 1. He sat through the entire proceedings and listened attentively.
Fire Chief Mario Molina conducted the meeting. With him was the project architect and project manager to update the citizens on the placement of the Firehouse on the Joy of Life greenway.
Chief Mario Molina was cordial and polite. After a presentation about the New Firehouse, Chief Molina answered the questions from the floor to the best of his ability.
There were several questions that Chief Molina referred to the project manager. Several times he stated that he would pass information to the Council.
The problem here is that the meeting was not designed to give information to the council about what the citizens thought but only to inform the citizens what would happen and to attempt to mitigate any negative feelings that might arise.
Irving residents were never given an opportunity to state that 217 citizens had responded to the SIPOA straw pole about the Firehouse and the Tree. There was not an opportunity to respond that 84% or 176 had responded that the Firehouse should be built somewhere else and that the Tree should be saved. There was not an opportunity to respond that 17% or 38 people wanted the Firehouse built on the Joy of Life site but only if the Tree could be saved. There was not an opportunity to respond that only 1% or 3 people had said to proceed as planned with no input from the citizens.
SIPOA (South Irving Porperty Owners' Association) was well represented at the meeting. At least half of the audience wore red shirts and four of the SIPOA Board Members were present.
Irving residents agree that a new modern fire station is needed, but they are questioning the location. The area being proposed is on MacArthur Boulevard where there is a park with a 100-year-old tree on it. The fire department has promised new trees, but old tree must go.
After the meeting on Wednesday night, Sue Harper sent an email to the City Council and to Tommy Gonzalez, City Manager, stating her concerns.
"After the meeting last night, I realize that the city will do business as usual and that will not include the citizens/taxpayers.", wrote Harper, "Fire House # 4 is a complex issue; it is about a historic tree, a neighborhood, use of bond street improvement money, lack of transparency in government, neighborhood integrity and loss of city integrity. Sure the fire department deserves the best and a new fire house, just not at the expense of an existing neighborhood or the loss of a park area."
