Caleb Rowell said shutting down the station frees manpower and money to improve the other stations in the city.
BAY CITY, Mich. (WJRT)- Bay City has officially closed one of its four fire stations, leaving just one on the West Side of the Saginaw River.
Public Safety Director Caleb Rowell told ABC12 the move just had to be done.
He said the Department only has about 20 firefighters on payroll and only one would be assigned to Station 5 at a time because the others needed larger teams.
"For the last several years, we've had one person assigned there each day. And, really, that fire station doesn't provide much different service," he explained.
On top of that, the Station 5 engine was sent on medical calls, in case of a fire.
That meant additional wear and tear on a slower and more expensive vehicle.
Though he added that one of the biggest factors for the move was the building itself.
"All the fire stations are pretty old. As I said during my presentation, for the past few years, we've been kinda patching holes at each of them. But if we eliminate a station, we have money freed up to actually fix some of the other ones. Station 4's seen a lot of renovation this year," said Rowell.
Neighbors are skeptical that the response times for their area will remain unaffected.
However, residents in the surrounding neighborhood, like Cynthia Norton, aren't ready to say goodbye.
For them, the presence of that single firefighter made all the difference.
"Can you put a value on peace of mind? You can't. And for us, that was peace of mind. We knew there was someone there," said Norton.
Residents are concerned that if the other West Side station is occupied, their response time will suffer because of the toll bridges and traffic.
However, Rowell told ABC12 that assistance from nearby departments will prevent those worst-case-scenarios.
"Bangor Township, which is right next to where Station 5 is, responds automatically when we have a structure fire," he explained.
But even if that's the case, Norton believes nothing will be able to replace the simple community presence it offered at its height.
"We think of them like family... They used to come out and play basketball with the kids," she remembered.
