NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A hair salon may soon occupy the former site of the Geneva Fire Station.

Mayor Charles Lombardi appeared before the Town Council Tuesday night to make a plea for Jessica Pray, the owner of JLS Hair Design. Pray hopes to rent the space on Douglas Avenue once the lease at her current location at 2167 Mineral Spring Ave. expires in January.

“It’s always been our position if someone’s in town to keep them in town,” Lombardi said.

Lombardi closed the Geneva Fire Station in 2010 as a cost cutting measure, much to the ire of firefighters and citizens who were concerned about what impact shuttering the decades old station would have on the town.

No one has rented the space since then, Lombardi said before the council. He said the deed for the property is in the name of the town. Renting it could be a “good money making opportunity,” Lombardi said.

Councilwoman Alice Brady asked that Lombardi forward the deed to council members for verification.

Pray, who opened her salon five years ago, feels the site would be a “good improvement” for her staff of 15.

The council will meet in at a later date to examine a lease for the building in coming weeks, President Dino Autiello said.

—jtempera@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7121

On Twitter: @jacktemp