Emotions were raw Thursday night as Fruitland Park commissioners tackled the sticky issue of how to best provide fire services to the non-Villages portion of the city.
At stake is the future of the Fruitland Park Fire Department, which is run largely with flex-schedule firefighters, those on small stipends and volunteers – many of whom either work full-time for other departments or are just starting out and need a place to learn the ropes of firefighting. Fire protection in The Villages portion of the city is provided by The Villages Public Safety Department.
The discussion, which once again centered on the possibility of contracting with Lake County Fire Rescue for fire services, was generated by Commissioner Patrick DeGrave, who took office this past November. Neither DeGrave nor Commissioner John Mobilian were serving on the commission in late 2016 when a plan was approved to disband the more-than-century-old fire department and contract with Lake County – and then abandoned about two weeks later.
Vice Mayor John Gunter said the department can probably continue to operate the way it does now – it’s funded solely by a $241 annual fire assessment fee – for another year or so before problems start to arise.
“What’s going to happen when we have to start replacing some high-dollar equipment?” he asked, adding that at some point three full-time firefighters are going to be needed on the city’s fire engine instead of two. “We want commercial business, but they’ve got to be covered with fire protection,” Gunther added, reminding his fellow commissioners that a consultant once told them it would cost $660 per household in assessments to have a full-time fire department, which is significantly higher than the current amount being charged annually.
DeGrave pointed to the costs of fire apparatus and equipment, fire stations and operating costs in saying “it’s damn expensive” to run a fire department. And he cited the need for a department with full-time firefighters that provide advanced life support through paramedics instead of the basic life support level that’s currently offered.
“You’re not going to grow significantly without addressing this at some point,” he said. “You can do it now or you can do it later, but you’re going to have to do it.”
Cheshire said he was happy to report that he hadn’t heard one single complaint about the fire department. He said the level of professionalism in the agency has risen since the last proposal to eliminate it in 2016 and he appreciates that.
Deputy Chief Tim Yoder pointed out that a fire department funded solely on assessment fees is “unheard of.” And he reiterated Cheshire’s positive sentiments about the firefighters who protect Fruitland Park.
“We have had zero issues,” he said.
Yoder also pointed out that after the commission reversed course on using county services in 2016, there was a great deal of animosity between the two departments – something that he said no longer exists.
“We have built these relationships to where if we need assistance, they’re there to help us just as much as we’re there to help them,” he said.
Mobilian, however, said that wasn’t the point.
“I don’t think anybody is questioning the training or the ability of the firemen that we have in our fire department. I don’t think that’s part of it at all,” he said. “I’m looking at the cost of the new equipment. We’ve got to build a new firehouse. All of that stuff is going to start to add up here pretty soon and I don’t know whether Fruitland Park can afford that or not.”
Yoder responded that in 2016, many Fruitland Park residents let commissioners know in a packed-house meeting how important it was to them to have a city fire department because of the “personal relationships” they’d built with residents. He reiterated that turning the department over to Lake County could very well eliminate that camaraderie with area residents.
“That’s going to go away, because they’re not going to show up whenever the kids need training for public safety week,” he said of the Lake County firefighters who would be stationed in Fruitland Park. “They’re not going to show up at Hometown Christmas and Fruitland Park Days unless you’re willing to pay them $40 or $50 an hour, per person. They’re going to look at it as a dollar sign, where our department looks at it more as a community.”
Commissioners also raised questions about the need for new firefighting apparatus, specifically a new pumper truck and a ladder/aerial truck once Westminster Communities builds a five-story assisted living facility near The Villages portion of the city.
Fire Chief Donald Gilpin reminded commissioners that part of the impact fees paid by Westminster includes $700,000 for a new engine. He said there’s a possibility Fruitland Park Fire Rescue won’t have to purchase a ladder/aerial truck – the costs for that piece of equipment could exceed $1 million – because The Villages Public Safety Department could be housing that same type of apparatus at one of its nearby stations. If that happens, Gilpin said, the $700,000 could be used to replace the department’s main engine, which is about 15 years old.
Gilpin also reminded commissioners that new businesses coming into the community can be required to pay similar impact fees that could be used for needed firefighting equipment.
“We can request things from them to fulfill our capital needs,” he said.
Cheshire said he was hearing the exact same arguments he heard in 2016.
“If you do not want to stay with this fire department and you want to go to the county, you need to have a partnership with the county, not the county coming in and taking over,” he said. “You just can’t give total control to the county. It’s got to be some sort of better agreement than we had before.”
In the end, the commissioners praised Gilpin, Yoder and the entire fire department and said the idea of possibly contracting with Lake County was strictly for financial reasons and wasn’t personal. They agree to seek more information about a possible contract from the county and to set up a workshop to talk about the issues sometime around the first of the year.
“We need to get with Lake County and find out what the actual savings would be,” Mobilian said. “But I also agree with Donald that we need to sit down and have a workshop to talk about it.”