Officials promise hard look at local fire rescue situation

Public safety, says District Two County Commissioner George Neugent, is the number one priority of the county government.

And he’s left little doubt in recent months that he feels that priority has slipped way too far down the list.

So it’s time, he says, to find out why public safety projects aren’t moving ahead while other, more high-ticket items keep rolling along.Neugent will be asking County Administrator Tom Willi and Fire Chief Jim Callahan for an extensive report at the Board of County Commission meeting July 18.

The item will appear under the Fire District Board of Governors because this is an issue that deals directly with what that body is supposed to be doing, said Neugent.

He said he plans to ask for a report on the status of the four fire stations currently in some phase of replacement that he feels haven’t moved forward as they should in the last two years.

I want to hear from the administrator and fire chief about Conch Key, Sugarloaf, Big Pine and Stock Island. I also want a report from the fire chief on equipment we have on hand, what we have ordered and what is needed to bring the departments up to par, said Neugent.

We also need to know the status on personnel. Is it adequate to provide response to emergency? What are the deficiencies and how do we correct them? said Neugent.

The issue is reaching a more critical stage at Sugarloaf than it has in recent years, says Gordon West, a resident of that island who has been deeply involved in governmental issues there.

The primary truck was severely damaged by Hurricane Wilma. It went underwater, and maintenance can no longer keep up on the issues it has, said West. The county got us a loaner, but it isn’t as reliable as we feel it should be. The rescue squad broke down on a call a couple of weeks ago, leaving us with inadequate coverage.

West and department personnel met with Willi and Callahan last week, and he said they agreed that the equipment concerns at Sugarloaf needed to be immediately addressed.

I came away from that meeting with a positive feeling that our concerns were acknowledged and understood, said West.
There are equipment deficiencies at the Sugarloaf station, said Callahan. The trucks were under water.

He said a new truck for Sugarloaf has already been ordered, and the squad was repaired this week to put it back in service.
The department says they need a new squad and tanker, but we quite frankly don’t have the money to replace them right now, said Callahan. The squad should be serviceable for a while yet, and we’ll have to try and address the other issues in the new budget.

West said they also told county representatives that the Sugarloaf fire house was in need of some extensive repair work. That situation gets a little trickier because the station is owned by the volunteer fire department, while the county equips the station and the volunteers who man it. There are no paid firefighter positions at Sugarloaf. The nearest paid personnel are two at Cudjoe, two at Big Coppitt and three at Big Pine. The rest of the force in all those locations is comprised of volunteers.

Callahan said the community offered to try and raise some local monies for station repairs, but West said that at best the community would be able to raise but a small portion of the money needed to do the job.

Personal and property protection are things that we pay taxes for our government to provide, said West. We’re willing to lend a hand where we can, but the money required for this effort is beyond our capabilities.

Callahan said that lack of funding is the culprit behind most of the current deficiencies in fire rescue services.
He agrees with West that Sugarloaf is not adequately covered, but that is a sentiment that he feels applies to most coverage areas in the Lower Keys.

We are at best minimally covered, said Callahan. We’re not looking to provide Cadillac service here, a nice mid-range Chevy or Ford sedan would do, but we have to stay away from that Yugo, he said.

With two paid staff at each station, on each shift, one is a paramedic and the other is the squad driver, explained Callahan. When they get a call, they are unable to provide immediate response to roll the truck for fires. That’s when we have to call on volunteers or other stations for coverage.

Providing full staff and equipment for fire and rescue coverage in a county with the geographical constraints of Monroe would be an expensive proposition, says Callahan.

Unfortunately, unless we get budgeted a lot of extra money, people are just going to have to live with the fact that this is the type of coverage we can provide, said Callahan. But make no mistake, we have group of very dedicated men and women, paid and volunteer, in Monroe County, who do a very good job with what they have in protecting the community’s assets.

Neugent said he wants Callahan to explain why he feels the taxpayers of Monroe County don’t pay enough already in taxes for the protective services they receive.

If public safety is indeed the number one priority of this county commission, then that means we are not properly allocating the money we do have, said Neugent. And that means we are not paying attention to our number one priority, which is public safety.

Mayor Mario DiGennarro has said several times in recent months that he wants a workshop session devoted to this topic, but it has yet to come about.

Neugent believes that session needs to happen.

At the very least, the administrator and fire chief need to present us with a plan to correct these issues, and the funds necessary to carry out that plan. Then, if we as a county commission decide to divert the money elsewhere, we will be held accountable for that, he said.

Neugent said he also plans to ask hard questions about why allocated funding for a new Big Pine fire station, which has been in various stages of planning for over four years, were removed from the budget this year.

I understand that we made a promise to put it back next year, but with a three percent rollback beyond 2006 levels for next year’s budget, there’s nothing saying we have the money to do that, said Neugent.

Callahan said that the budget staff didn’t really take the funding from the Big Pine station.

They left enough in the line item to cover what expenses they felt they would have this fiscal year with completing design work and getting bid documents on the streets. The allocation remaining will cover that so work won’t come to a halt, said Callahan.

And unlike Neugent, who isn’t real comfortable that once pulled from the budget the money will magically reappear next year for the project, Callhan says he is comfortable that the budget staff will replace the funds in 2008.

No actual construction work can start on the building prior to October, so when it’s needed, we’ll have it back in the allocations, said Callahan.

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