The City Council is scheduled to hold a work session followed by a possible vote on the fate of Fire Station 3 on Monday night at City Hall, and groups who feel strongly about both sides of the issue are getting ready for another fight.

In an e-mail to city residents on Friday, the Portsmouth Professional Fire Officers Association urged the public to "speak out against budget cuts and keep the city’s safety a priority." 

The e-mail also said the budget cuts adopted by the City Council "radically reduced the number of fire fighters on duty within the department, and forced the station closure. Cutting staff and closing the fire station has increased emergency response times exponentially, making the city of Portsmouth less safe."

Meanwhile, members of the Association of Portsmouth Taxpayers are urging city residents to speak out against the $150,000 requested by the Portsmouth Fire Commission.

"The city has approximately $250,000 in contingency money which is designated for use under emergency situations. In an unprecedented move, the Portsmouth Fire Department has decided to request these emergency funds to augment the budget submitted in 2011 - essentially for salary increases to already highly generously paid city employees," reads an e-mail from the taxpayers group that was sent out on Saturday.

"There has been no unexpected nor emergent change to warrant using these crucial funds to increase the fire budget. It would be an irresponsible precedent to allow a city leader to change his budget midstream without a significant event that necessitates the use of three fifths of the city’s emergency funds." 

The City Council unanimously voted on Jan. 18 to hold another public hearing about Fire Station 3 at 6:30 p.m. followed by the regular council meeting at 7 p.m. Fire Station 3 is located at Pease International Tradeport and has been closed since Jan. 2.

Fire Chief Chris LeClaire has previously said his department's response times have increased since Fire Station 3 closed because the city's remaining two fire districts are now required to cover the third fire district. Restoring Fire Station 3 would allow the Fire Department to add another engine company back into the Fire Department shift rotation. he said.

City Manager John Bohenko told councilors on Jan. 18 the council could take money from the contingency fund to provide the $150,000 needed to reopen Fire Station 3 immediately. He said using money from the $250,000 contingency fund would only require a majority vote whereas a supplemental appropriation requires a two-thirds majority vote.