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To the editor:
I was quite horrified when I learned
that the Chief of the Fire Department is
considering a plan to buy a house on Wait Avenue
across from Shenandoah Downs to use for a fire
station. Several years ago, before Shenandoah
Downs was built, the property was for sale and a
prospective buyer came along who wanted to store
all his trucks and equipment for an asphalt
paving business there. We neighbors were all
very concerned about the proposal. One man I
talked to was the elderly father of the current
owner of that very house on Wait Avenue.
When it was time for me to take my
leave, he cautioned me about how to get out of
the circular driveway safely. He said I must
exit at the eastern most driveway exit, in order
to have enough time to get onto Wait Avenue
safely. The western entrance is far too close to
a very dangerous blind rise and one cannot see
what traffic is coming.
A few evenings later, the planning
board held their hearings, and the first item on
the agenda was the proposal to build what is now
Fire Station #2 [on Ligon Road]. The then-chief
said one reason they picked that location was
the fact that it had a "sight-line" of at least
500 feet in both directions, the minimum
distance for a lumbering fire truck to exit the
fire station and get safely onto the road. I
used that statistic in my own presentation,
comparing the weight and size of an asphalt
truck to a fire truck, arguing that either one
would need a 500-foot sight-line to get out onto
Wait Avenue safely. It just isn't there in that
location [on Wait Avenue] due to the blind rise.
The proposal to allow the asphalt
trucks to be parked there was soundly defeated
by both the planning board and the town board of
commissioners. Although I would appreciate the
fast response time in case of emergency by
having a fire station so close to my house, I
must continue to oppose the placement of a fire
station in that particular house that is now for
sale. It just wouldn't be a safe place to get a
fire truck out onto Wait Avenue, no matter which
direction they needed to go.
Connie Nourse (Mrs. Hugh
Nourse)
Wake Forest |
