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Escambia Set To Hire 24 New Firefighters, Increase Fire Tax
July 17, 2015
Escambia County homeowners will likely be paying an extra $15 per year for fire services, with the money going toward 24 paid firefighters bolstering the ranks at at least two fire stations.
Public Safety Chief Mike Weaver told Escambia County Commissioners Thursday that full-time staffing is needed at five fire stations in the county — Ferry Pass, Bellview, Innerarity Point, Myrtle Grove and West Pensacola — where volunteers have missed a large number of calls for service, between 10 and 60 percent of fire calls.
The most expensive scenario Weaver presented commissioners was $5.25 million per year for 73 positions — 60 firefighters for full staffing the five fire stations, plus filling 13 positions at stations around the county where paid crews have been cut from four to three firefighters. That top option would cost property owners an additional $42.03 fire MSBU.
Full staffing the five fire stations with 60 total firefighters would cost $4.41 million, or $35.30 per dwelling unit per year.
Weaver also presented commissioners with a bare bones $883,199 need, or $7.06 per residential property, to continue funding 12 paid firefighters at the Ferry Pass Station. The firefighters were placed at the station a few months ago after volunteer response problems, and they are currently being paid by dipping into reserve funding.
The commission gave preliminary approval to a compromise plan presented by Commissioner Wilson Robertson to increase the fire MSBU by $15 per residential property, from $85 to $100 per year, to fund approximately 24 firefighters — the 12 already at Ferry Pass and an additional dozen to be place elsewhere.
Weaver said the additional 12 firefighters will likely be used to man the West Pensacola Fire Station.
The commission is expected to give final approval to the $15 residential MSBU increase at an upcoming regular meeting. The commercial rate will increase from about four cents per square foot to about 4.5 cents, while the unimproved property assessment will increase from $11 to about $12 per parcel plus about six cents per acre.
Meanwhile, Escambia County is still working to bolster the number of volunteer firefighters, mostly through word of mouth recruiting by existing volunteers.
NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
19 Responses to “Escambia Set To Hire 24 New Firefighters, Increase Fire Tax”
Keep notes on new/higher taxes and where ALL the tax money goes. When it’s election time, get rid of these clowns. Look at what they have done, and continue to do. Vote them out!!!! They have to go!
Looks like the people have spoken…and if our county continues this tax as well as others they passed..most of these commissioners will be jobless next election.
Well Commissioner Barry; What do the people in the North End get for their extra $15?
They have a double edged sword on their hands. The paid firefighters that were added many years ago were added to supplement the volunteers. They have. In the process, additional reserve money was spent on more career firefighters. Those newly hired career firefighters came from the volunteer ranks. Most all of our career firefighters were volunteer firefighters. This leaves the volunteers with HUGE voids to fill. I tried applying to volunteer and the first person I talked to sounded like he didn’t want me to and reminded me of an old gruff drill sargent. Filling volunteer voids was and is not a priority and now it is biting us all in the rear. I have never EVER seen an ad or commercial or anything from our county asking for volunteers. Who dropped the ball on this one?
On a flip side, they are creating jobs in the county and us citizens are now paying a lot more for fire protection. That system is growing to failure and needs a businessman to get it under control. Our county is too diverse to be one big happy family.
Let me be the first to say this, if you live in the north end and you travel or work in the south end, you have the peace of mind when you visit that there will be a response should you get into a crash or your place of business catches on fire. Its a win-win or lose-lose.
My brother volunteers and I’ve heard him talk for hours on how our precious public safety department ignores obvious problems. Not what I want to hear coming from the ground troops in the PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT.
Last thing and I’ll close. If they hire 24 more firefighters how many of those will be officers? How many more administrative or chiefs officers will be hired to supervise the 24? All this adds up to is more $$$ next year and that’s another ignored obvious problem. Shame on you public safety.
From the various comments offered, there seems to be no doubt about what is expected and realized as far as services between the north end and south end of our county.
However, I live in the middle of the county.
I suppose any mention of the consolidation of services is out of the question.
I do think the north end residences should pay for anything else in the south end. Let them pay for their fire fighters. We have the best volunteers in the world up here. No new additional taxes, besides we did not vote for the fire tax, started out $35.00 many years ago, see what it is now or is going to be in the future. Again, no new taxes or additional taxes. Let the south end pay!
>>What is the current amount charged for “Fire Tax”?
“… increase the fire MSBU by $15 per residential property, from $85 to $100 per year”
What is the current amount charged for “Fire Tax”?
Recently I had to call 911 for my husband one night when he was having “Chest Pains,” I had four Volunteers in my yard like immediately. I told them I needed an Ambulance, it came from “Atome,AL” but those Volunteers went right to work on him getting his vitals and following Medical protocol. Maybe your paying the wrong Firefighters and maybe we need another Fire substation before you get into Alabama in the North end of the county. Just saying think this thing through thoroughly before raising anyones taxes. We have roads they travel on that they travel on that need fixing which could possibly cut down on response time as well. Where will those funds come from,raise our taxes somewhere else on something else.
no more fireman!!! no new taxes!!! i want the flag back !!!! vote them all out!!!
@bama in regards to your 90 year old home burning quick, it would actually burn much slower compared to a modern home. There is a great NIFSTA video that puts a “legacy” room next to a “modern” room and guess which one is fully involved in under 5 minutes. This is very relevant to the situation above. Fire is much more dangerous than it has ever been and I believe has much to do with their increases.
The County Commissioners will continue to revise your taxes without voter input until YOU vote them OUT!
That’s the only thing a politician understands.
NO new taxes. The north end gets hosed AGAIN.
Here we go , more money for taxes, when does it stop. We really need to vote these people out of office. But I guess the new ones would be the same Lol. If the county and school board would stop wasting our money then we would be able to do important things, heres an example, the heap at saufley, man digs a hole , makes a ton of money gets in trouble with epa, ect the we tax payers pay to fill in the hole, man moves to another site and boom, he we go again. Waste , waste.
I do aree we need more firefighters however, $15 a year comes out to at least $ 1.5m. So, are the firefighters going to be paid $63k per year ?
Totally agree with you Jason. I live in Alabamaand I saw the pissed off people on the ECST tax. I would be too. When I followed one yesterday. With 1 person on it never picking up another. Your paying for this mNsride when he was young enough to
Be working and paying his own ride. (They’re called taxi’s). I hate to say it but. No they should not add more taxes to you. Just saying. If my home catches on fire. There is no way they will ever be able to put it out. Plus I have very good insurance I pay for. Do I want it to happen ?God no,I love my home ,,but a 90 year old home is pure lighter it’s gonna burn hot. And a long time. So basically those dollars see wasted STOP TAXING THE HARD WORKERS.
So the people in the north end of the county get to pay for this…where are our paid firefighters? Where is our bus? I agree with Jason…enough of this nickle and diming and then spending it as “newly found money”! We had to fight for 2 years to get a traffic light at a dangerous intersection! I am tired of paying for raises for the ECC!
Last year the BCC raised the gas tax by 4 cents per gallon to fund ECAT. This was done under the guise that Ad Valorem taxes would be rolled back by an equal amount of funding since ECAT had previously been funded by means of the Ad Valorem tax.
However, the BCC opted to forego the rollback on Ad Valorem rates and used the money that once funded ECAT as “newly found money” and spent it elsewhere in the budget – partly for employee raises and some for additional deputies. Maybe they should have put that extra money into reserves to order to pay for future expenses?
At some point the BCC must stop nickle and diming taxpayers for additional money. The BCC needs to decided their priorities and then fund them with the money available. Once their available funds have been exhausted those items on the lower level of priorities dont get funded. Its called living within your budget. Sometimes you just dont get all the frills you think you need or that you want. I already see the handwriting on the wall that next year there will be another request for additional firefighters and more money. Good lord knows the BCC has a need for a new jail and they still dont know how they are going to pay for it.
They just raised the rate a few years ago. My pocket book is not a bottomless pit!