Several Toledo City Councilmen made a move on Tuesday in the budget debate to try to re-open the Northwest District Police Station on Sylvania Avenue.
Toledo City Council approved setting aside $100,000 to re-open the station with a 9-3 vote. However, it appears that won't be happening anytime soon. The Bell Administration won't staff it.
Tom Zigray has lived in his home on Sylvania Avenue for 17 years. It's right across the street from the old Northwest District Police Station which the Bell Administration closed last July.
"The neighborhood is teetering," says Zigray. "There's a lot of influx of rental property."
Though Zigray is not seeing an up tick in crime, he supports reopening the station saying it would be a constant comfort.
"Makes the ones of us that have been here feel protected and makes the ones that are transient aware that there's a presence," says Zigray.
"We don't see any need to reopen the District Station at this time," says Shirley Green, the Public Safety Director for the City of Toledo.
Green says in the past six months property crime has dropped 54 percent in the one mile radius around that building.
Green says closing the building saves the city thousands of dollars in utilities and maintenance. But she says it's not about the money, it's the manpower.
"We want our officers in cars patrolling their district beats," says Green. "There is not a lesser presence of police officers in that area. That police building can't respond to calls for service. Police officers and cars respond for service."
The building is in Councilman Tom Waniewski's district.
Tuesday the Republican voted in favor of the budget amendment to set aside $100,000 from the city's capital improvement fund to reopen the Northwest station.
"We'll never know if a building stopped a crime, but I think it's a good argument to say with it there, the presence is there and the neighbors feel comfortable about it," says Waniewski.
"This is a great neighborhood and I'd like to see it continue that way," says Zigray.
The Bell Administration still wants to sell the building. The mayor's office found a buyer last year, but council rejected the deal.
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