A new fire station for Athens’ east side is still on the City Council’s to-do list, despite the fact that a recommendation to accept property on which to build it died for lack of action at the last council meeting.

The Athens-Limestone Hospital Board of Directors voted to donate three acres in its Medical Village on U.S. 72 East at Lindsay Lane. However, official acceptance of the property has hit snags in the last two council meetings.

First, Councilman Harold Wales, who represents the district in which the new fire station would be built, asked that the matter be tabled for further study. He said about a half-dozen residents in nearby subdivisions had called him to object about noise and traffic associated with a fire station.

Next, the recommendation made it onto the March 27 regular meeting agenda, but Council President Ronnie Marks, the chief proponent of seeing the fire station built on the hospital property, was unable to get a motion and the measure died for lack of action.

“I’m steadfast on this medical property,” Marks said Friday. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s not another option. I’m not aware of anyone else wanting to give us three acres east of Interstate 65.”

‘Wires crossed’

Councilman Johnny Crutcher said, “we got our wires crossed” in explaining why no one offered a motion on the hospital property. “I thought Henry (White) was going to offer a motion.”

White said Friday, “I think we need one (a fire station) out there, and I think it will pass at the next meeting.”

Wales had suggested building the station on city-owned property off U.S. 72 behind Regions Bank originally intended as the site for a joint police station and fire station. White would not comment on Wales’ suggestion because White’s brother-in-law, Bill Ming, brokered the deal to transfer the property to the city in return for about $600,000 in infrastructure improvements throughout the tract, which has since been named Athens-Limestone Crossing and where several new businesses have since located.

When The News Courier suggested that White was “sidestepping the issue” considering that the property had been under the city’s ownership for nearly three years, White commented, “I wouldn’t have called you back if I’d known you were going to say that.”

Other city officials were not as reticent about giving their opinions on that particular piece of property.

“That property is worth about $800,000 and I not going to vote for putting a $1 million fire station on it,” said Crutcher. “That would be stupid.”

Prime property

Mayor Dan Williams also said the Athens-Limestone Crossing property is valuable development property and the city might be better off to try selling it. “It’s worth more for something else,” said the mayor. However, Williams acknowledged that the city hasn’t sought a buyer for the prime real estate.

Marks’ biggest issue, he said, is that the Athens-Limestone Crossing property is west of Interstate 65.

“I’ve been traveling on the interstate, and while I don’t want to be too dramatic here, I’ve had to detour two times in the past six months because of spills,” said Marks. “If we had to shut down U.S. 72 and Interstate 65 because of an accident or chemical spill, we couldn’t get to those people on the east side of the interstate. This is an absolute no-brainer.”

Wales says he doesn’t want to be seen as someone who is against an east-side fire station.

“My position is that I am in no way trying to stop construction of a fire station,” said Wales Friday. “I want to see it built as much as anyone. I’m just saying that we need to take another look at the property behind Regions Bank. And then, there is five acres that the city owns behind Medical East, under the water tower. All I’m trying to do is promote looking at other areas that wouldn’t have to upset anyone in the neighborhood…It was never my intention to stop it without serious cause.”

Other options

Marks acknowledged that the city-owned property under the water tank is an option, but he says it’s an expensive option when the city would have to do road improvements estimated to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars so fire trucks could get in and out.

“I’ve gotten several calls from business owners in the area who have said, ‘Certainly, you’re not going to let this fall through,’” said Marks.

Councilman Jimmy Gill said the city needs a fire station on the east side, but he has no strong opinion about the location. “I would like to see it come to some kind of conclusion,” said Gill. “We just need to go ahead and do it. This has been going on for three years now since we were going to do the police station and the fire station together and the bids came back too high.”

Gill said he had also received several calls from people in the Indian Trace Subdivision near the proposed Medical Village fire station site who were in favor of having the station there. “They said if we would put up a barrier like we said and build a building to blend into with the surroundings they would support it,” said Gill.

The City Council will meet in a special called meeting Wednesday at 4 p.m. It is not known if they will discuss the fire station.