A county official says the station would settle in "a very critical area." Some Carrollwood Village homeowners disagree.
By TIM GRANT
Published March 21, 2004
CARROLLWOOD - Will W Village Drive become a race track for county fire trucks? Will homeowners in Carrollwood Village endure earsplitting sirens and horns at all hours of the day and night?
That's what concerns some people about a proposed fire station on W Village Drive near the intersection of Ehrlich Road.
The $2.5-million project is scheduled for completion in October 2006. But before work crews start digging dirt, the county will hold public meetings to hear what homeowners have to say.
A meeting scheduled for last week at Northwest Elementary school was canceled when Carrollwood Village homeowners realized at the last minute that the firehouse will be erected in their neighborhood.
All along, they thought it would be in Country Place, a community farther west on Hutchison Road. They had good reason to think so: The new station is being called the Country Place Fire Station.
"Because they called it Country Place, that's why we missed it," said John Miley, a homeowners board member in Carrollwood Village. "Fortunately, it was caught at the last minute."
Dan Ruskiewicz, the property manager for Carrollwood Village, contacted county staffers on Wednesday and asked them to reschedule the public hearing that was set for the following day.
"It wouldn't be a fair meeting if nobody from the Village showed up because they thought it was going to be in Country Place," Ruskiewicz said.
Ruskiewicz said he and other homeowners had seen signs advertising the public meeting, but he did not pay much attention to the signs until they placed several of them on the property where the fire station would go.
The public hearing will be rescheduled for April, after Carrollwood Village homeowners are given ample notice to attend.
Ruskiewicz said he wants more information before he forms an opinion. But he anticipates that homeowners will have a number of concerns about fire engines using W Village Drive.
"That's the windingest road we have," he said. "That's very dangerous. We wouldn't want them driving W Village to go elsewhere."
The sirens also will be an issue, he said, not to mention what the 6,000-square-foot building would look like.
"It's not a great location for a fire station," Ruskiewicz said. "They are usually on major roads."
The Hillsborough school district is donating the land - near Ben Hill Middle School - to the county, said Swati Bose, manager of the county's architectural services section.
Bose said this station will complement a network of fire-rescue stations that serve all of northwest Hillsborough County. Whichever station is available responds to emergencies.
"This station is in a very critical area," Bose said. "There is a need for service at that location."
Bose said a new fire station also is planned for Northdale.
Miley said he wants to understand more about how the emergency system works. He's not convinced that a fire station is necessary in Carrollwood Village.
"In our front yard we already have a perfectly adequate fire station on Dale Mabry across from Publix," Miley said. "Do we really need another one in our back yard on W Village Drive?"
