I grew up in a small town in the northeast of maryland and for as young as I was I had to go to college in glenburnie. After college I worked as a full time office manager, so I had to spend a lot of the time commuting to my office. I was never a morning person so commuting was a big challenge.
My co-workers and I were always talking about our jobs, what we liked about them, and what we would do if we had to leave. We were also taking a lot of group trips to the area, but we never asked the other co-workers how we were doing. We were constantly on guard. I was always on the lookout for signs to tell me the other co-workers were feeling insecure or worried, but I never knew for sure.
In the days after the 9/11 tragedy, we started to think about what we’d do if we had to leave. We’d go back to the same jobs we’d always had, but for a longer time. We’d also try to figure out how we were going to get from one place to another, and how we were going to deal with the possibility of some of our co-workers being in danger.
The one thing no one expected to happen was the reopening of the firehouse in Glen Burnie, Maryland. The fact that the firehouse had been closed for five years means that the city had not been completely prepared for the loss of life (and the loss of a good chunk of its budget) that occurred there. Not to mention the fact that the entire firehouse complex had been turned into a makeshift homeless shelter that had a lot of empty rooms.
There were two main reasons why the firehouse was reopened after being closed for five years. The first was the money saved by not having to pay the $9 million in fines that the city was supposed to spend on a new fire station in the area. Second, the fact that the firehouse had been closed for five years meant that the city had no idea what it was in store for in the future.
Since the closure, the city has been trying desperately to figure out other ways to deal with the increasing homeless problem. The solution that the city is suggesting is to build a new fire station in the area. However, this is a very expensive and uncertain solution to a very difficult problem. The question is whether the closure was the result of a deliberate decision to shut the entire firehouse down or if a more benign reason was in play.
In short, it may have both. I’m not sure either scenario is completely plausible, but we can’t rule out either. The closure may have been the result of a deliberate decision to shut down the entire firehouse. Maybe the city’s new mayor was trying to cut costs, so he decided to make another move to the homeless problem by closing the firehouse.
The firehouse was closed for a number of reasons, including cost savings and the need to put out the homeless problem. The citys new mayor, Dave Darnell, may have been motivated by his own desire to put a halt to these kinds of actions.
Whatever the case, the citys new mayor may have also shut down the firehouse because he felt this was one of the last remaining firehouses that served the city. Asking us to rule out the closure is probably not good. The firehouse was more of a convenience than a necessity.
Maybe he was just being nice. Or maybe he was just being pragmatic. Either way, Darnell is no longer the citys mayor and he now runs the citys Department of Homeless Services. The firehouse is now a place that fires people. If he wants to close down that last remaining firehouse, he can do it.
