The Franklin Park Herald Journal has an article about the closing of a fire station in Franklin Park.

The village of Franklin Park stopped staffing its fire station on Elm Street on May 1 due to changes in calls and rail traffic. As anyone driving through Franklin Park knows, the village is divided by rail tracks. The eastern section of Franklin Park used to be split off from the rest of the village by north and southbound tracks.

The Elm Street station, located on the eastern border of Franklin Park between Parklane and Franklin Avenue, was primarily responsible for calls in that portion of the village. “That (Elm Street) station was primarily (built) there because it was inaccessible when trains were coming through town,” Fire Chief Steve Iovinelli said. That changed, however, in 2007 when the Grand Avenue underpass was finally completed. Trains no longer stopped emergency vehicles and other traffic.

Earlier this year, Iovinelli started looking at call numbers. He found three things:

• From 2010 to 2013, only 9.5 percent of all calls to the fire department came from the section of Franklin Park covered by the Elm Street station

• Call volume north of the Canadian Pacific tracks — which run east and west near downtown — had increased. The area north of the Canadian Pacific tracks includes much of the industrial section of the village as well as residents.

• Rail traffic along those tracks increased about 25 to 30 percent over the last few years.

As a result of these changes, Iovinelli said the ambulance at the Elm Street station was responding to more calls north of the rail tracks and, because of increased train traffic, taking longer.

The ambulance from Elm Street is now based at the main fire station at Addison and Scott Street. The station at Atlantic & Franklin Avenue will now be the first responder for all calls south of the Canadian Pacific rail tracks including the section of town previously handled by the Elm Street station.

thanks Dan