By Darla McArdle
May 16, 2008 11:40 pm
—
The hilltop college area is growing by leaps and bounds with college additions, apartment buildings, strip malls, businesses, new homes and a mobile home park. Wouldn’t you think with all those taxpayer dollars we could have firemen in the Pohl Road station during the day and not just at night? Wrong. But we do have the Alltel Center, remodeled parking ramps, downtown hotels etc. All for the good of the future of Mankato.
I say this because I watched my neighbors and their three young daughters loose their newer mobile home and most possessions. Why? Because, in my opinion, of at least a 20-minute response time for the fire department to get from Madison and Broad to the University Mobile Home Park.
They were told it was five minutes, but that is impossible unless they were airborne. It was not their fault, but that home could easily have been saved.
I spoke to the city public safety director and my neighbor to a councilman. They claim Mankato is in the low fire count area, but what about those they do have? Years back,
when the town was one-fourth this size, we had the main station and one on State Street. Why have the Pohl Road station and fire trucks there?
What would happen to homes out by Menards or the coming Wal-Mart Distribution Center? I was told that they are putting a station by the current law enforcement center, one near Applebee’s in 2011. We will pray for no fires in outlying areas until then.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.