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| Significant fire facility upgrades are coming to Beulah---and this community, its citizens, and the firefighters that staff station 2 have waited too long for this to happen. It's coming! |
Aside from having two long meetings of the BCC yesterday, where multiple good projects were put forward and lots of good and decisive votes were taken, another issue was finally put to rest....
Almost 2 years ago, the Escambia Board of County Commissioners voted to purchase the property and improvements in Beulah that currently make up ECFR Station 2--owned by the Beulah Volunteer Fire Department.
The reason this took so long is due to the fact that lots of paperwork had to be gathered, some was missing, and multiple lawyers were involved and it just dragged on and on. It dragged on much longer than it needed to. But we finally got the deal done, and it was confirmed in an email late yesterday afternoon that the wire transfer of funds had occurred and the deal was formalized.
But that wasn't all the good news for Station 2 yesterday. At yesterday evening's regular Board of County Commissioner's meeting we also funded multiple brand-new commercial washing mashine/extractors for multiple fire houses in our county--including station 2. (This was desperately needed, as station 2's existing extractor is/was 25 years old and had been repaired multiple times and had obviously exceeded it's useful service life--in fact it even had paper-clips jury rigged inside the electronic panel a la McGuiver to make the machine spin. The water wasn't draining properly and the water inside smelled horrible--and these are the machines the firemen count on to wash their protective gear)
So we funded this and later in the meeting I funded an item from my discretionary spending account not to exceed (NTE) $10,000.00 for Station 2 to purchase 8 new twin mattresses for their makeshift bunk room and for the purchase of a new commercial grade washing machine and dryer. These items were desperately needed, so I did not want to wait another minute to fund these necessary items.
SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT AT STATION 2?
Now that the county owns this property and improvements, the next steps will include funding a Design Firm to come out to the station, assess the improvements and property and in coordination with the firemen and facilities staff ascertain the requirements going forward for the station to serve the growing Beulah area. Once the Design firm takes this information-they will be tasked with bringing forth a plan to modernize/renovate the existing facility and add on as necessary to meet the requirements specified.
I have allocated $1 Million from my discretionary local option sales tax (LOST) fund, and there is $1.5 Million in LOST III earmarked for Station 2's upgrade--for a total budget for this project of $2.5 Million Dollars.
This will fund larger bay doors which will accommodate a ladder truck, proper kitchen, bathroom, bunkhouse, and meeting facilities, and an overall modernization of this dated facility.
Beulah is a growing area and Beulah's firefighters and residents deserve the best fire facility and equipment we can get them.
It's coming!
6 comments:
Good evening, commissioner this is great to hear and read. I’m glad to see that your taking an initiative or at least putting a foot in the right direction towards public safety in your neighborhood. That facility definitely needed a revamp. Just wondering though if you had anything in mind to put towards district 20/ station 20 and those citizens off of Lillian? I know your looking out for your neighborhood but what about the rest of Escambia county’s citizens, you can’t forget about them? Almost seems as if it’s a conflict of interest, your looking out for your own safety in your own neighborhood because you live in Beulah but not the safety of the rest of your county/ districts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great you were able to find and come up with some money for Beulah but you’ve had two years to come up with a solution for Station 20 off of Lillian but nothing has happened? Nothing, other than mutual aid agreements, which again is not guaranteed coverage for that area. Escambia county in a whole is a growing county and all residents/ citizens to include district 20 “deserve the best fire facility and equipment we can get them”. Also have you really been by your other fire stations in your districts such as Station 11, Myrtle grove lately? Because if you have, you would know station 2 is not the only one with those kind of problems as you stated above. Their washer and dryer is in poor shape with lots of water leaks and with paper-clips jury rigged inside the electronic panel to make the machine spin as well. I’ve seen some firemen just having to wash and scrub their gear outside with a hose, brush by hand and air dry.
remodel, refurb, update?? this is a project you don't just throw money at. would it not be more fiscally responsible to build a new building? have you spoken with the officials at NF concerning a piece of property that can be used/given/granted whatever to build a new fh from the ground up? wasn't there already a piece of property donated? what about the property directly behind the fh? $2.5million for a refurbed firehouse? I'm pretty sure that money could build a couple of new fh's that will provide better coverage for the homeowners in the area of Beulah or Lillian/Bauer area. this is just a campaign stunt and a good one at that. you can build a fh but it doesn't guarantee that personnel will be there. the turnover in a PAID-ON-CALL, not volunteer, fire station, not department, is critical. here today, gone tomorrow. also, you do realize it takes 400+ hours to be a career ff and about 200 to become a paid-on-call ff? keep em running, keep em rolling...god forbid you try to save the homeowners money on their insurance. keep up the good work berg, spin this however you want, it's still just cotton candy.
Anonymous 3:52--We are working on a plan for station 20. The problem: that station's land did not belong to us and the lease was pulled and we had no control over that so the administrator and the fire chief made the decision to close that station. We have a mutual aid agreement with the Lillian Fire Department that sits right over the bridge in Alabama and they will cover the areas previously covered by station 20 until a plan is worked to replace that station. The other factor that really convolutes the issue is the fact that in its last three years, station 20 ran an average of just one (1) fire call YEARLY. So a lot of thought and planning is currently going in to just how to fix that area. Anonymous 2:24-the plan/idea to modernize Beulah's fire department has been in the works for a decade. I'm just the guy who keeps pushing to make it happen. And believe me, it ain't no campaign stunt. I got the contract to purchase the property approved by the board TWO (2) years ago, and have pushed and pushed through a lot of delays in paperwork with multiple lawyers to get this over the finish line. Ask any member of station 2 if they believe "Jeff Bergosh delayed the firehouse project purposely" and you will likely have them laughing hysterically in your face--that's how ridiculous that notion and idea is. Nope, complex issues take time, even though there are some who do not live in reality that believe that I should have been able to fix every problem in the county and in every neighborhood of district 1 in just three years time. Newsflash for those folks--nobody could fix all this in three years. The good news is, in my second term I will get a TON of stuff done, just wait, watch, and see! :)
Commissioner, even if district 20 ran one fire call yearly. That’s not to say that tomorrow they have 3 structure fires in that district. You don’t dictate when that fire happens. Fires are unpredictable. Fires burn hotter and faster today than they ever did. There just isn’t any concern for that district till someone gets hurt or dies unfortunately. Which has happened before in other districts and right away like in the past, there’s a reactive decision made to put firefighters in that district instead of just being proactive now. Being best prepared now for the emergency at hand later. Not smart chancing it with only a mutual aid agreement. The sad reality is if anyone’s house ends up burning to the ground because of delayed tactics, delayed manpower, no proper staffing or if someone dies in relation to response that’s at the end of the day on your head because the facts are out there and you’ve been aware of the inevitable.
If ignorance is bliss, the Berg is in heaven
So we have gone from a new firehouse to refurbing an old one to accommodate a paid-on-call crew. this is going to cost more money (man hours, upgrades, huge modifications, etc) than building a new one. perhaps this could have been done rather than building two useless libraries. he must really love paid-on-call ff's to waste all this money on such a ridiculous campaign stunt. he says it's not but the timing even after all the "work" he has put in is just in time for campaign time. can't wait til the fdle investigation results are released. ohhhh Berg, you're so entertaining.
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