Businesspeople, residents happy Fire Station No. 2 will be replaced

Tracy Hinton knows quite well the value of having city fire protection and city fire medical first responders stationed close by.

Hinton of Momeyer is the owner and proprietor of the Walnut Barber Shop. His business is less than a minute’s drive from Fire Station No. 2, which is just southwest of downtown Rocky Mount.

Earlier this month, Hinton, who has been operating the barber shop for about 40 years, spoke of the time a man who shined shoes inside his business suffered a heart attack.

A team from Fire Station No. 2 quickly responded to treat and look after the man before emergency medical personnel arrived to take the man by ambulance to the local hospital, Hinton said.

The man did not survive but he was still alive when he was carried away from the barber shop, Hinton noted.

Hinton was speaking in response to the Local Government Commission, in a July 9 vote, approving a request by the city to proceed with an $11.4 million financial package to replace Fire Station No. 2, which dates back to 1977, with a new one at the same location.

The Local Government Commission is part of the state treasurer’s office and assists local governments in North Carolina in decision-making involving large financing projects. The current Fire Station No. 2 is not in service.

Hinton was pleased to hear of the city’s commitment to keeping a fire station in the neighborhood where he works.

“That’s great,” he said.

Hinton also knows some of those who have been stationed at Fire Station No. 2 because they have come to his barber shop for haircuts.

Asked whether they told him anything about life at the station, he said, “Not really. They just enjoy their job.”

A short drive from the fire station on Clyde Street in the city’s Little Raleigh area, Jayairra Pittman was upbeat in an interview earlier this month about the news that the city was committed to keeping a fire station in her neighborhood.

“I feel like it’s a good decision,” said Pittman, who works as a cook at Zaxby’s restaurant.

Pittman said she particularly appreciates that fire department crews and trucks in the future are going to be able to roll again from West Raleigh Boulevard and South Grace Street. Pittman’s grandmother, who lives on Clyde, suffers from cancer.

Pittman also said she views the future replacement Fire Station No. 2 in a larger context of the need for everybody to get along and work together.

“We need better people in the community to make it better,” she said. “We need better everything.”

Joe Whitehead Sr., who is retired from having worked as a painter, has long lived off Garvis Street, which is adjacent to the Fire Station No. 2 building. In fact, the rear part of his residence faces the back of the station’s fenced-in grassy area and parking lot.

As for his reaction to the news of the city getting state approval to proceed with replacing Fire Station No. 2, Whitehead said, “That’ll be fine with me. We do need it, especially in this neighborhood.”

With a smile and a laugh, Whitehead said that hopefully some of his painter friends are going to get some jobs helping paint inside the future replacement Station No. 2.

Asked whether he would go help paint if he could, he said, “No, I’ll supervise.”

City Councilman Lige Daughtridge, whose business is off South Grace and just up the street from Fire Station No. 2, said in an interview at his office earlier this month that his bottom line is: “We need a fire station. The people in this neighborhood need a fire station.”

Overall, Daughtridge said, “We need to live up to our commitment and do what the city should do — and build the fire station.”

Daughtridge represents Ward 5, which includes large parts of the western and northwestern parts of the city, and he said that his ward needs a fire station as well.

Daughtridge was particularly quick to emphasize that the Bunn Farm area, which is northwest of the Interstate 95 interchange for U.S. 64, is quite a distance from a fire station.

“And hopefully we can work on that sooner than later because the health and safety of all of Rocky Mount is important,” he said.

During the City Council’s regular meeting Monday afternoon, funding to pay to replace Fire Station No. 2 was approved by consent.