Suffolk News-Herald

Two emergency service volunteers on Wednesday urged the Suffolk City Council to move up its plans to expand the Whaleyville Volunteer Fire Department.

During the public hearing on the proposed 2003-2004, $27.8 million capital improvement budget,

WVFD Chief Charles Brothers told council members that the Whaleyville station needs to be enlarged before the planned 2005-2006 fiscal year.

&uot;My understanding is that there is an ambulance available for us at this time,&uot; said Brothers. &uot;But the only way we can get the ambulance now is if we have some place to put it.

&uot;Now is the time to upgrade the facility, not three years from now,&uot; he continued. &uot;Residents in Whaleyville deserve the same services as other residents in the city.&uot;

Rusty Hundley, president of the Nansemond-Suffolk Rescue Squad, agreed.

&uot;It’s time for the Whaleyille station to have an ambulance,&uot; Hundley said, who also asked that the proposed King’s Fork Fire Station needs to be addressed sooner than planned. That facility is budgeted for $2.1 million in the 2006-2007 budget year.

The only other ambulance based in southwestern Suffolk is at the Holland Volunteer Fire Station.

Former Vice Mayor Rufus Powell also asked council to increase its proposed $50,000 allocation for the continued implementation of the village plans to be upped to $100,000.