City Council Ignores Art Club's Plea Against Fire Station Site
Walla Walla officials vote to move forward with a fire substation at Park and Alder, despite local concerns over location and urban planning.
By a vote of six to one, the city council last night turned down the protest of the Art Club against the location of the sub-fire station at the corner of Park and Alder streets. Councilman Smith cast the dissenting vote. The fire and water committee submitted a report recommending that the contract for the construction of the building be awarded to Thomas Mickelson, whose bid for doing the work was $4,562. Councilman Smith objected to taking immediate action, stating that some objections to the location of a sub-station at that point had been made, and he thought that the matter could go over until another meeting. Councilmen Martin and Glasford favored immediate action, arguing that the location was the best that could be secured as it was accessible to both the business and residence sections. Mrs. Albert Dale Gantz and Mrs. T. J. Pennell from the Art Club were given an opportunity to speak, but the council voted to adopt the committee report, with only Smith in the negative.
“The location was the best that could have been secured in the city as it is not only accessible to the business portion of the city but to the residence section as well.”
Conflicts over the placement of municipal infrastructure often highlight the friction between aesthetic concerns and utility. Today's debates over zoning and the footprint of emergency services in historic districts echo this 1903 struggle between the Art Club's vision and the city's logistical demands.
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