INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Fire Department will move ahead with a plan to consolidate four stations into two, despite protests from neighborhood residents.
IFD and residents of the Butler-Tarkington Neighborhood held dozens of meetings over the plan to consolidate Station 16 in Butler-Tarkington and Station 32 in Broad Ripple Village.
Butler-Tarkington residents were strongly opposed to the plan, arguing it will make the area less safe.
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On Friday, IFD announced it would move ahead with the consolidations of Stations 16 & 32, as well as Stations 52 & 54. Station 54 will be repurposed into the IFD Fitness Center.
The moves are part of a cost-saving plan aiming to cut $2.1 million from IFD's budget by mid-2017. The department said it March it believed the areas affected by the consolidations "will see no diminished coverage" based on national standards of the first arriving fire apparatus getting to the scene within 4 minutes 90 percent of the time.
Next up in the reorganization: The Department of Metropolitan Development will look for neighborhood input on the future of the Station 16 property.
