Despite a protest from the fire department’s union, city officials opened a discussion about shuttering the Montclair station and slashing two firefighter/paramedic positions. During Thursday’s public safety committee meeting, Rodney Hall, president of Edwardsville Fire Fighters’ Local 1700 spoke against the notion. “We have become aware that there will be a proposal put forth to eliminate at least two firefighter/paramedic positions and to permanently close fire station No. 2 in Montclair subdivision sometime during the year,” he said. “This is being done because of a perceived crisis in the Edwardsville Firefighters’ Pension Fund. The idea seems to be to use the money saved from the firefighters’ salaries and to use the proceeds from selling station two to help with funding the pension fund,” he said. “We believe this would be a serious and potentially life-threatening mistake.”