I hope the neighborhood council board was listening on Wednesday night when Tom Butt gave his advice about the fire station.

In Butt's 30 years of experience, he said, what works best to influence the Richmond city council is a massive showing of concerned citizens. He said that if 700 Pointers showed up at a council meeting and let their concern about Station 61 be heard, the council would pay attention.

There are two chances left: December 2 and December 16. That leaves not much time to spread the word and, more important, create enough excitement around here to draw even those who might otherwise stay home.

Butt gave the number 700. No matter which way we round it off, whether down to 500 or up to 1000, it's a huge portion of the Point. To put this in perspective, 700 people is just about one third of the Point's registered voters.

The neighborhood council is the logical body to answer this emergency call. If the council fails to step up, the next bunch to be sacked should be this board.