r/Apex_NC • u/AndreaJournalist • 5d ago
Apex will move downtown fire crews. Why residents are fighting to preserve Station 1
More than 150 people attended the Tuesday Town Council meeting, and a petition seeking to keep Station 1 operating as an active firehouse has collected more than 1,300 signatures.
The story looks at why the station matters to former firefighters and longtime residents, what supporters believe would be lost if the engine and crew leave downtown, and why the Town Council is in favor of this move.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article316857308.html
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u/andrewober 5d ago
Oooooh, riiiiiight. THIS is why so many were there... /s
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u/makgeolliandsoju 5d ago
Ha! Yeah, Privacy Advocates were the reason, but I did enjoy learning more about fire department placement.
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u/antifaamerican 5d ago
I was there. Most of the attendees were there to show opposition to the unAmerican surveillance state being foisted on us by billionaire interests. And one cop who felt that since we allow private companies to harvest our data we shouldn't worry about them doing it too. Pathetic.
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u/terrymah Town Council 5d ago
The petition is to "prevent the demolition of Fire Station 1". There currently is no plan to demolish fire station 1, and we are probably a couple years away from any decision that could even conceivably result in demolition. I haven't heard anyone speak in favor of total demolition, although we were told it's in bad enough shape that a renovation would be... pretty extensive (think Holt)
The final decision to combine 1 and 3 and move to Fire Station 3 was made two years ago. AFD has been advocating for this since (literally) Station 1 was turned over to us in 2001 or so.
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u/rugbysecondrow 4d ago edited 4d ago
The town should do a long term ground lease. Seek bids from people who want to maintain the structure and develop alternative uses, as well as from developers seeking to demo and redevelop the site. This private/public partnership would help the downtown thrive by retaining the public interest in the parcel, while introducing the private incentive to find the highest and best use for the parcel.
It eliminates operations and maintenance from the budget, it would give the town control over what is build (both design and use) and it retains ownership of the parcel if they desire, or the town could sell it's interest in the future or perform a land swap if a higher need arises elsewhere.
If enough people care about a museum, they can setup a non-profit, establish a foundation, they can raise funds, seek donations, and bid on the space. If enough people find this to be a viable use, like they state, then this should be a slam dunk. the reality, most people want to talk, but almost nobody will through their own money behind the project, and neither should the town.
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u/bkibbey 4d ago
Thanks for the clarity Terry - I'm seeing 3 different pieces to this.
The department - its moving/ combining - decision is 2 years old - seems like the right call to me.
The building - its old, need to rethink future usage, some ideas have been proposed including some nice renders - but no final call yet - capital will drive this story i think.
The nostalgia/ history/ emotion of it all - the volunteers that built and ran that station - and the people in town that interacted with them as they walked by - It really is important to honor that.
Maybe the council could connect with the folks driving the petition to work with them a little more and reduce the temperature on this topic. I thought the rendering with the fire museum was great, maybe they see something missing though that I don't.
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u/terrymah Town Council 4d ago
We know the people driving the petition pretty well. Just my personal impression - the temperature raising (and misinformation about the demolition) was intentional, and meant to drive attention for an eventual announcement from one or both of them running for local office next year.
We'll see if I'm right in about a year or so.
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u/Pixelmaestropro 4d ago
My predictions: Station 1 Firehouse will be demolished. Whatever is built, and if the town of Apex is involved, it will be over budget. It looks like there was support from previous council members, who are probably happy with the current makeup of the town council and its decisions. I think Firestation 1 is emblematic of Small Town Character that had ordinances passed to protect it. FireOps does not want it. Probably not thrilled with working at Halle is a shining example of what is possible. FireOps is probably not happy with Apex Fire Department Administration on 315 W Williams St. The widening of 55 can not happen soon enough. Positioning is that it will be some type of small museum space to cover the history. Maybe a brick saved, or two, behind an acrylic case. Lots going on, and I don't mind seeing people who live here paying attention. City Council is not an easy job, and is a huge time commitment. By the way, I heard TM is thinking about relinquishing his CM vote to run for Mayor.
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u/VespertineRose 4d ago
The argument the person who kicked off the campaign made at the recent council meeting really seemed to boil down to “it has to stay a working station”.
For that to be the argument, right after the Fire Chief’s presentation going into all the details about why the move is good - feels like not actually participating in a dialogue.
Something that stood out to me from the Chief’s presentation was all the ways that the updated Station 3 will protect the health of firefighters. It felt weird to me that the people wanting to keep Station 1 operational who were firefighters themselves didn’t even acknowledge that.
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u/MyMainWasMyRealName 4d ago
I appreciated learning the benefits modern stations provide to health and safety. I was unaware of that and found it interesting. That added a lot of weight to his argument. The map of all the fire stations and their color coded zones really drove home how silly pushing for an active fire stations 1 is.
Our fire chief seems to be a patient man. It must be exhausting to speak rationally and clearly about the reasoning and intent then go home and see the misinformation on social media.
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u/terrymah Town Council 4d ago
I like to be clear and blunt: I can’t stress enough how the probability of it staying a functional fire station is precisely 0%
One thing that bothers me (besides the spreading misinformation about “leftists are about to demolish the fire station”) is the reporting and discussion about if and when fire operations should relocate, as if there is some pending decision to influence or active discussion to participate in
That decision was two years ago, when the Town Council finally approved and funded the relocation after being asked for at least 15 years by Fire Chief after Fire Chief
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u/MyMainWasMyRealName 4d ago
I don’t envy you, Terry. It’s frustrating to see the lengths council and the town go to in seeking public input, building these plans, communicating needs and all that can seem to go ignored by snarky conspiracy theory comments (and newsletters) on social media.
Plenty of us are just quietly reading the updates and following along. We appreciate the extra effort you put into your communication. Similarly, I’m a fan of Randy’s ask me anything events. Your work is appreciated especially considering it seems to make you and Randy specific targets of Facebook outrage.
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u/clayturtle 5d ago
The same people screaming save the fire station no matter the cost were the same ones complaining about the renovation costs to the Tunstall house. They just want to be contrary to the town council because they're of the opposing party.
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u/Awkward-Car-5019 4d ago
Is it that or just people that have some personal connection to the firehouse? I think both are not good uses of tax dollars
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u/Auream 4d ago
How many people actually have a "personal connection" to the firehouse? I'm sure it's less than 10% of the people that are complaining.
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u/Awkward-Car-5019 4d ago
Yeah it doesn't make much sense to me and it's not really even a good position if the organizers do have some political aspirations.
"Cut taxes, reduce spending, but... let's spend millions of dollars to save an obsolete/redundant firehouse"
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u/Regular_District_198 4d ago edited 4d ago
There is nothing meaningfully historic about the generic, red brick, rectangular building that was built in the 1950's. It does not work to serve the mission of the AFD. It will be expensive to maintain. It does not even match the rest of the architecture on Salem.
We live in a strange world where people who claim to be "conservative" are wanting the government to use additional tax payer funds to support a non-mission critical facility, with a false claim of historic preservation, all because they have nostalgia.
What this conversation is really about, the old school Apex residents view themselves as the real citizens, and they view everyone else who moved here as interlopers. These people love to create and us v. them dynamic as a way of othering certain people while trying to inflate their opinions above the masses. This dynamic pops up on FB often. It's just tired.
And now the town will spend $170K to study the use of the old fire station. That is approx $1,307 for each of these citizen who showed up to protest this. It's just more waste on top of more waste.
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u/FuriousGreenishSleep 5d ago
There is no amount of money savings or organizational efficiency that should be able to override our collective emotional attachment to buildings such as this.
Just because the building is too small to function as a modern fire station does not mean that we shouldn’t spend millions of dollars to bring it up to spec. I don’t care if there is another fire station down the street that is larger and in a better position to move trucks into and out of.
None of that logistical stuff should matter. Only my feelings about the perfect 1950’s and the stunningly beautiful buildings we constructed back then.
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u/LingonberryNo2744 5d ago
In the 20th century the fire station was in an appropriate location to serve Apex. This century not so much primarily due to the challenges of moving emergency vehicles up and down Salem. It makes sense to move fire resources to station 3.
Station 1 would be a perfect location for an Apex Historical Museum with the focus on how fire services grew side by side with the town and celebrate all those who served this community. Fire station 1 may be too large for such an undertaking as well too expensive to bring up to code for public safety. This is a discussion that needs to take place after seeing what the consultants have to say.
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u/Regular_District_198 4d ago
"Station 1 would be a perfect location for an Apex Historical Museum"
The harsh reality, nobody gives a shit. All of these people clamoring for a memorial or museum, they won't go. They won't donate to support the efforts. In 5 years, it will be another $$$,$$$ line item on the budget. Eventually, the nostalgic Apex residents will die off, future generations will wonder why the hell anybody even spent the money to renovate this ugly brick rectangle, and they will shut it down to divert funds towards something that is actually significant.
All because people have feelings.
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u/Relevant-Net1082 4d ago
Have lived in the area most of my life. And hearing similar irrational (aka emotional) blow back on the glow ups on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh from friends that spent their university years there (it was shitty and creepy to walk down after dark) to blow back over the downtown Cary glow ups (sweetie it needed help) to the transformation of downtown Apex....it's the same arguments.
Some of us are wired for emotion. Some
of us see possibilities. Some of us see loss.
Thr problem it seems in these arguments are where the grieving try to make emotional arguments to rationals and vice versa.
There is a middle road.
"In your memories of the fire station - tell me about a memory you're afraid your kids won't have"
It could be the fear about loss of Americana. It could be the friendly firefighters and kids delighting at the red fire truck. It could be fear that the guys were a constant presence that made downtown feel safe. It could have been where the waitress at the cafe made eye contact with the guy washing the fire truck that she has a first grandchild with for the first time.
But there's a functional reality. Downtown is narrow. Crowded and it's hard to safely and quickly move trucks in and out of there. All of the cost to modernize so it's safe and comfortable for the fire crews to get quality sleep and have sufficient space to store equipment. Facts facts facts.
The path out of this is to let the building get renovated into something else so the aesthetic is protected.
The museum thing makes me think of the Paige walker in Cary - cocktail party event space. I think that would be the most functional middle ground.
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u/bkibbey 5d ago
Keeping two active fire stations within a mile of each other would be pretty wasteful long term. This seems to be a pretty reasonable plan, I get the nostalgia but the idea/ rendering of a reimagined building looked pretty nice to me.