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| I have asked for a proposal on costs for adding additional personnel to Beulah's Station 2. The preliminary plan would require $220,000 in new revenue to fund--which I am working a plan to do... |
Yes-there are ramifications. Or, as Newton put it aptly in 1687-- "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction"
We've seen the impacts on our traffic and our schools. There are impacts to stormwater.
There are impacts to the call load of Beulah's Volunteer fire station on 9-Mile road, as well.
With the BCC moving toward a compromise plan for our OLF-8 property that will more than likely add a lot more residential dwellings and large retail structures--which in turn will exacerbate our current traffic gridlock--we also have to be cognizant of our fire service coverage out here.
I have strongly supported the volunteers at Station 2 in Beulah since I have lived here--and I still do now, more than ever. These men and women are excellent and they do a great job. These volunteers will soon have a new, modern fire facility which is being designed right now, and for which the board has committed a total of $4 Million to build.
But because the growth at OLF-8 will push the capabilities of the stretched-thin Station 2 volunteers--I have had staff produce a plan for adding a three man, paid firefighter crew during the daytime hours at Beulah's station 2 (not dissimilar to what we do for the Century Fire Station in District 5--which also enjoys coverage from paid firefighters during the daytime hours). IMPORTANTLY: I am NOT advocating for the replacement of the volunteers at station 2; to the contrary--I am also, simultaneously working a plan to bolster and grow the roster of volunteers at Beulah. That plan is already underway. Bottom Line: Station 2 will remain a volunteer station--albeit with daytime support from a 3-man paid firefighter crew to assist with coverage---if I can get funding and support for this from my counterparts on the board.
Meanwhile, all this growth that will necessitate additional coverage utilizing paid firemen from ECFR begs the question about funding. According to the study I received back from Fire Admin late last week--it will cost about $220,000.00 yearly in additional funding to add a paid three man team to Station 2 for the peak 45 hours weekly of call activity.
I believe we may be able to fund the first two years of this additional, enhanced coverage for Beulah utilizing Federal Rescue Plan funding; eventually, as OLF-8 gets developed, I support adding impact fees, a TIFF, or an enhanced MSBU (or some combination of these three) --ONLY on the developments permitted there (on OLF-8) in order to offset this additional $220,000 in costs thereby eliminating the need to raise the county-wide MSBU. I do not and will not support raising the MSBU county-wide.
I intend to bring this topic and this plan to an upcoming meeting of the board. Stay tuned. Meanwhile- take a look at the initial, draft, and very preliminary estimate and plan below....
18 comments:
Man I’m glad to see the new chief is doing a great job at keeping volunteers. You used to be able to drive by any day of the week all hours of the day or night and see 3 to 5 cars there now you’re lucky to see you for on a Monday night which is supposed to be their weekly training night. The writing was on the wall though he couldn’t keep volunteers at Station eight so what made him think he was going to be able to keep staff at Station two??
I support this. I also support a plan to retain and support volunteers. The same old recruiting/pay isn’t gonna continue to work. Maybe consider other stipend options like pay by call or a daily amount to increase volunteers!!
This is fantastic news, Commissioner Bergosh!
One more reason it might not have been a great idea for Administration to move that 23M out of Public Safety and into "CARES."
Ms. Gilley said that she had used the 23M to "pull down" the CARES money, I believe (I'm calling from memory). That verbiage is typically used when a grant requires a match. Did any of our CARES money need matches? (An honest question.)
If not, can you please explain what that and the rest of her answer meant? Because nobody I have spoken with has any idea what she was saying. Perhaps that 23M was moved into CARES and from there the General Fund to pay employee salaries?
Those are honest questions...any light you could shed on that would be great. I would love to be reassured that there was not 23M moved out of the Public Safety budget for last fiscal year and never returned to it. That would set people's minds at ease.
--Melissa Pino
The new fire chief out there is incompetent and needs to be removed from his position! He refuses to run calls because he’s a Chief and he feels he shouldn’t have to. He also refuses to do anything on scenes and feels as if he shouldn’t have to. He tries to intimidate volunteers and verbally attacks them. Then tries to hide behind his rank when he finally makes the volunteer react. All and all, if the station could get rid of the new chief and bring back the volunteers that are waiting to come back when he leaves, the station can go back to the heaviest volunteer staffed station in the county like it was 6 months ago but until then, good luck finding a volunteer new or old that is willing to put up with the disrespect and the games that are being played!
I support this. I also support a plan to retain and support volunteers. The same old recruiting/pay isn’t gonna continue to work. Maybe consider other stipend options like pay by call or a daily amount to increase volunteers!!
They are volunteers, they shouldn't be getting any money. If they want money for riding fire trucks they should apply for a job. Nothing against any of them but you don't sign up to volunteer then start asking for pay. There are paid positions open and I'm sure they would be hired.
Weird, you’ve been saying you’ve had a plan for paradise beach this whole time, and there still isn’t anything to show for it out there. How do we know you’re actually gonna do anything about Beulah with all this supposed “planning” you’ve been doing? Put your money where your mouth is and actually put the betterment of your constituents in front of whatever works better for you and your special interests.
Why? Because he put a stop to the bullcrap that was going on out there? Because he puts safety first? Because he goes by chain of command in which it is supposed to be? Because he won’t let y’all joyride the trucks at any hour of the night? Because he puts a stop to the waste going on up there? I can go on. Be a man
Same Volunteer Chief that was responsible for losing the Paradise Beach Station is now in charge of Beulah. Coincidence?
They’re are plenty of career chiefs that we wish we could get rid of as well but you don’t see us complaining and doing that. At the end of the day that’s our boss (your boss) suck it up do your job! Wait but your a volunteer so is this really your job.... you don’t see us just getting rid of our chiefs whenever we feel like it, that’s not the way this works.
As much as I agree with this. It’s time to fix the real problem and not just put a bandaid on it. Were always so reactive instead of proactive. Your fire department can’t even fill career spots because no one is applying, no one wants to become a firefighter for 10 dollars an hour. We pull people out of burning buildings and pull them out of vehicle wrecks for 10 dollars an hour where I can go bag groceries and make 13 dollars an hour doing that. We don’t go to the fire academy or go to emt school/ vocational college to make 10 dollars an hr. The only way to make extra money is on overtime which is more time away from family/ home and less rest on a job that we have to survive for 30 years we’re killing ourselves our backs, our bodies for a starting pay of 10 dollars an hour. You have 11 openings right now on the career side and now you want to take another 3 men from the roster? Where are you going to pull them from and create more vacancies else where on the roster. It makes no sense. You need to fix the real problem because your public safety is bleeding while the county continues to grow and expand.
We’re losing firefighters & paramedics who live in Escambia county to nearby departments such as midway and the city of Pensacola, south Walton, Walton county. I know of several firefighters from Miami that we hired a while back that are looking at going back home because Miami dade fire department is about to open up to hiring because we as a department and county simply can not compete or retain our employees. All we do is train our firefighters & paramedics to be the best and gain experience then send them off else where to make more money or be compensated better. Experience matters at the end of the day you can not replace experience. Escambia county should not be a stepping stone for firefighters. For the amount of area we cover and the amount of calls we go to as a department there’s no reason Escambia county fire rescue shouldn’t be the best department between Tallahassee all the way to Mobile, Alabama. In less than 10 years or within 10 years your going to have a mass exit/ retirement of almost 25 firefighters/ chiefs & lieutenants. How do you plan to combat that issue or are you just going to leave for the next commissioner or next fire Chief to deal with? I appreciate the positive step forward towards expanding fire coverage and seeing the need for manpower and more firefighters. But we need to stop operating like we’re still in 1990 it’s 2021. We need funding, we need manpower cause the growth isn’t stopping and the citizens deserve the best ALS and the best fire coverage they’re tax dollars can buy them.
"He refuses to run calls" sounds like he fits right in over there in beulah.
Isn't it annoying when some random truck driver can waltz in and become a chief out of nowhere? Whether they quit or get run off, or whatever. But we take em back even if noone wants em, and get surprised when they are incompetent and fail. Same thing happened at 7. Some tow truck driver who volunteered back in the day is now chief over there. Had been gone for years, but found out he could be a chief and now he's back.
These are the type of volunteers the department does not need. Ones who do it simply for the rank or for fun. If youl actually cared about the department or your community youl wouldn't be fleeing beulah because some chief was mean to you. Regardless of what stuff is going on up there he isn't stopping youl from running calls or helping people. Just shows how shallow those who transferred out recently truly are.
Lol you were going okay and then took a hard left, why mention 7?
#whatwillittake You kids better calm down online posting while you are sitting at work. #makingexamples. Also, grow a pair and say what you feel the need to say on a blog to the person you are slandering. #hands
No the reason why the paradise beach station was lost was because the county was dumb enough to not plan for when the property owner that let the county put a makeshift firehouse on their property wanted it back. Now the reason that there were very few volunteers left is because of the same reason there aren’t as many volunteers left in the county... THE CALL LOAD IS TOO MUCH, AND VOLUNTEERISM ITSELF IS IN DECLINE THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. And this Guy actually wants to hold the volunteers at Beulah accountable, and not be a complete waste of tax dollars that they already are, and all of a sudden he’s the bad guy.
I get that fire fighting is important, but don't we have more serious issues at hand like Andy Marlette drawing cartoons!?
Although accidents happen, I see personal responsibility for home owners is tantamount and the responsible ones should not carry the weight for the irresponsible for fire suppression. In the old days the fire brigade was to prevent the entire city from getting burned down perhaps because some one let a cow kick over a lantern in a barn full of hay.
Rewired homes with ground fault interrupter, good smoke alarm, pay attention to cooking, no smoking, pay attention to outdoor burning conditions, don't have a meth lab in a shed, don't collect old papar and rags and so on.
To have highly trained individual on the ready is expensive and a mix of volunteer seems to be a good practice from the overall perspective for the good of the whole, especially in more rural areas.
The MSBU is already high for the entire county and as the southern half becomes more populated, a rural home owner should not bear the brunt.
Perhaps privatize EMS if they haven't recovered from their failures to bill the Enterprise fund, prioritize calls and don't send a firetruck or a paramedic to a sprained ankle incident.
There is many things wrong with this statement, how are you going to make sure every home in Beulah or even in escambia county has working and proper smoke detectors? how are you going to make sure everyone is practicing appropriate fire safety, with outdoor burning, attention to cooking & etc. how do you even go about that? you can’t force anyone or everyone to practice fire safety or be as cautious as maybe you are. In 2019 alone ECFR responded to 270 working structure fires and 166 working vehicle fires combined that’s a fire everyday of the year in Escambia county. So this comment goes back to the mindset of operating like we’re still in the 1990’s or in the 1800’s mentioning fire brigades when we’re actually living in 2021. Fires are burning hotter and faster today then they ever have. Fires today flashover in 3 minutes instead of at 5 & 6 minutes due to combustibles materials in our plastics and fancy Walmart/ ikea furniture. And maybe you practice appropriate fire safety which is great but it’ll be your neighbor or someone else to make the mistake one day or even just a simple lightening strike or the wind is just blowing the right way that day and then your home or your property is too close for comfort or even a relatives life ends up receiving damage or getting hurt unfortunately due to someone else’s mistake or just a natural disaster. So there’s lots of variables when it comes to public safety and it sounds like your willing to leave that up to chance and roll the dice on it anyway and I’m sure they’re are many like minded individuals that would agree with your comments and statement above as well and are willing to just roll the dice on it.
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