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Escambia Raising County Fire Tax $25 Per Year To Staff South-End Stations
June 10, 2016
The Escambia County Commission has given preliminary approval to a $25 fire tax increase to finishing staffing south end fire stations with paid firefighters .
The commission voted 4-1 Thursday, with Steven Barry against, to add the $25, increasing the fire tax for the average homeowner from $100 to $125 beginning with the next fiscal year.
The proceeds from the extra $25 per year municipal services benefit unit assessment (MSBU) will fund 24/7 paid firefighters at the Myrtle Grove, Innerarity Point and Bellview, plus fund $150,000 in volunteer firefighter stipend increases.
Between October 1, 2015, and March 29, 2016, the Bellview Station volunteers failed to respond to 10.82 percent of calls. Innerarity Point volunteers missed 44.79 percent of calls, according to Public Safety Director Mike Weaver, necessitating the paid staffers. The Myrtle Grove Station was staffed out of reserves in January after a series of no-responses.
The volunteer Molino fire station missed 14.35 percent, or 30 of 209 calls; Beulah volunteers did not respond to 2.55 percent, or 58 of 536 calls; and Century volunteers missed 5.03 percent, or eight of 159 calls. Volunteers in Walnut Hill had a 100 percent response rate to 112 calls, while the all-volunteer McDavid Station missed zero of 23 calls. There are no plans for additional paid staff at any North Escambia station (Cantonment is paid staff 24/7 and the Century Station has paid staff 7 a.m. until 4 p.m., Monday-Friday).
Commissioner Steven Barry voted against supporting the $25 MSBU increase because no District 5 station will receive additional benefits.
“I make a concerted effort to recognize that while I, and all my colleagues on the BCC, are elected by geographical districts, we each also serve all the county residents,” Barry said. “However, in an instance were an additional tax is being levied on all county taxpayers, but there will not be an operational benefit to the District 5 property owners and residents, I cannot, and will not support an increase.”
Last year, Escambia County increase the fire MSBU by $15 to fund full-time staff at Ferry Pass and West Pensacola.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Comments
36 Responses to “Escambia Raising County Fire Tax $25 Per Year To Staff South-End Stations”
This is why we should always vote against any new taxes, once they start it always goes up no matter what. Just take a look at how many more people and houses there are here now with this cost put on every house that’s here THAT’S A LOT OF MONEY. I would suggest voters wake up before we find our selves not able to afford to live here.
What a lot of people don’t understand is paid coverage for their area is not always a plus, There are a lot of times you will see Cantonment at Ensley station, and Ensley at Brent or vise versa, and it’s not cause they are covering their district cause both crews are there. I personally don’t like paying a higher fire tax and the time I may need a response from them, they are 10 miles away.
*The Kicker
“$150,000 volunteer firefighter stipend increase!!!!!
The benefit that district 5 will be getting is the volunteer firefighters that will only be in the north end, will be paid a larger stipend in order to run calls….. more money=more incentive to run the calls
there you have it!!!”
The sacrifices we make to run these emergencies are not for a monthly stipend.
The stipend is meant to offset the food, gas, other necessities to running calls and staying at the station for long periods of time
Not a single volunteer in your community will ever say he won’t run this call because his monthly stipend is not enough. It would make more sense for the people who don’t understand our mentality to come up to a station and witness a training, or even sit with us and share stories around the dinner table.
We protect our community with a sense of pride and gratefulness and that will not be blurred out by money or politics.
From the complete start of this, politically swayed statistics to dodgy interviews ran by WEAR bashing volunteers to the ground is nothing short of dirty when all we want is the satisfaction of helping someone else.
Ok so here is the kicker… you ready???? There is no fight for District 5, as you will directly benefit from this MSBU increase, what is that you might ask??
Well if you read the article, the county wants to have complete career coverage on the south end, right?
So that means the north end will have for the most part all volunteers… you ready for this?
$150,000 volunteer firefighter stipend increase!!!!!
The benefit that district 5 will be getting is the volunteer firefighters that will only be in the north end, will be paid a larger stipend in order to run calls….. more money=more incentive to run the calls
there you have it!!!
Okay so the knit pickers want it known that IP does not own the acreage it use to.
That is true IP still owns several thousand acres.
Large vacant timberlands are taxed at about $1.25 per acre. Paying about $30 per 600 acres if fire tax per year.
And when a brush fire is reported, it is the county that responds first and stays until no longer needed or the forest service shows up and maybe relieves them.
Either way, it is your property taxes and fire taxes paying to fight fires on hundreds of thousands of timber properties owned by large companies looking to real the profits growing there.
And when thousands of acres are owned by an outfit like The Nature Conservancy, they pay zero taxes of any sort and pay zero fire fees.
If it catches fire due to lightning, maybe we should let nature take it’s course and let it burn.
Does it have to be unanimous per Florida constitution now? I am beyond my patience with Escambia Service on the North End about another service with animal control and mosquito problem which are connected with standing water needing to be addressed with a feral cat population living over it. Phone calls have been to no avail SO FAR… But I am not done yet. As far as the volunteer fire fighters up here I am AMAZED and thankful for your service. Been here three years and property taxes raised three times with no service affecting me. I know I have to pay it and been paying attention to local politics. I still believe we have a voice if you contact the right person and know in your heart you are doing things for the better of yourself and the community. Things are not perfect and always relying on gov to solve problems is not a good way to be. As far as fires…prevent them!!! Check electricity, clean up, be careful…no Meth labs…The only fires should be acts of nature in most cases not carelessness.
>>District 5 currently has 3 career stations covering a portion with a soon to be fourth. Stations 6, 7 and 4 cover a portion of Comm Barry’s district.
Irrelevant to his argument. This is a new tax with no additional new coverage in District 5, and nothing done about Molino’s poor daytime response since most of their fine volunteers work during the day.
District 5 currently has 3 career stations covering a portion with a soon to be fourth. Stations 6, 7 and 4 cover a portion of Comm Barry’s district.
Steve Barry is great!! He fights our battles for us, some times we win some times we lose. Like with the gas tax for the ECAT the one that doesn’t stop anywhere near where anyone lives. We have little use of the ECAT but pay a gas tax to cover for the downtowners. Why can’t the Commissioners charge the renters in apartment house the $25.00 and have it linked to the Gulf Power or the ECUA bills. There are ways to get this paid for other than charging us for things the City and South end uses..
>We are in the Bellview area and are wondering what constitutes a “No Response”?
The criteria actually was included with the report. Mostly like, it’s a station is paged and simply does not roll an apparatus before the dispatcher pages the next nearest station. So it really is a “no response”.
jeeperman on June 10th, 2016 9:11 am
Homeowners get the shaft while major land owners like IP owning 2000 acres of fire hazard timber pays $75 per year.
IP isn’t a big land owner, they sold their land off several years ago. RMS, John Hancock and other insurance companies are the large land owners.
Innerarity Point and Paradise Beach were dispatched to 108 calls in January alone. That just shows you that these numbers are incorrect. They responded to 88 of 108 which is greater than 44% no matter how you do the math.
@ William
We are in the Bellview area and are wondering what constitutes a “No Response”?
Thank you.
I figured this was going to happen last year, and you can be assured that it will go up every couple of years until its 500.00 a year. These folks that are elected dont care about us because they have plenty of money or in some cases own their own business, we single parents and such cant afford to keep getting hit like this. I witnessed a EMS supervisor sit in his truck with in running at the water by my home last week or so for an hour, doing nothing. There was nothing going on, he was just sitting at the water, surely a lot more waste is going on. Lets vote these folks out. They will say ah it isnt much just a soda a day, i like my soda.
People need to really research what the County Commissioner’s vote on to spend. People would be shocked. GPS in every county vehicle, how much each unit cost to be installed and how much it cost to operate the system. Maybe TV 5 should poke around because Channel 3 sure isn’t going to do it.
But when someone’s house burns down. It doesn’t matter if you live in either the North End or the South End, everyone says what a shame and there should of been more fire fighters or more equipment and then people start pointing fingers.
Everyone wants more but no one wants to pay for it……..until it happens to you. Then maybe 25$ extra on your taxes would of been worth it. But by then it’s to late.
Jeeperman,
the IP property would be the responsibility of the Forest Service, not the County. and they pay property taxes just like any other landowner.
thanks
These kind of issues will be around until the County gets exactly what they have been going after…. Every Fire Department South of Nine Mile road to be paid! They don’t like the idea of a Volunteer Department being able to hold their own so therefore the County makes it that much harder for a Volly to be able to get in the fire service now. When they do apply, Mr. I think I’m almighty, sends them to a PAID DEPARTMENT!!!! That makes NO sense… Why send someone who wants to VOLUNTEER to a PAID Dept. It is harder and harder everyday to work with some of the paid crews that are around this County. They (NOT all) will look at a Volunteer like they are useless, when most have the same if not more certification than most of the paid… It’s just really sad that all these years everything was going so good and now it’s “Nope, you don’t know what you are doing, Gotta put a paid crew in”…. WAKE up folks we are NOT some massive City and we do not need to be set up like one…… I am 150% for the Volunteers! Always have been and always will be!!! Great job Guys and Gals…..
WOW….
Living in any of the highlighted areas wouldn’t only be bad for your safety and security of your home but the insurance for your dwellings must also be higher as the insurance companies have this info also.
Innerarity Point looks like it’s just waiting to burn.
Terrible numbers for lack of response.
The Lord Bless those who do respond to the calls for help.
Money flows north a lot more often than it flows south. There aren’t that many people in the north end, so who do you think pays for all of those roads to be resurfaced and ditches to be maintained?
Why would they put in a 24/7 paid crew at all these locations it looks like the Vol. are doing a pretty good job of covering their districts. For a station to handle 500 plus calls is impressive you would think rather than kicking the Vol. out maybe helping them and maybe supplementing them would be a better alternative. What happened to the 7 to 5 crews we use to have in the county to try and help the Vol. out a bit. Why have we gone away from the combination stations of the past that function way better than any 24/7 paid station. 3 paid and 40 Vol. in one house is better than just three paid on shift. Oh BTW its CHEAPER than the 9 paid staff that it takes to man a 24-hour crew. Tired of the Politics that has come to a once great service. Fire Service is supposed to about protecting our communities and service to those around us, not using scare tactics to get a bigger fire budget.
Any voter who votes for an incumbent of any office in this upcoming cycle, deserves what they will get. Every office holder, Democrat, Republican, or Independent should be thrown out of office and start again. None are worth a dollar and especially in Escambia County. VOTE ALL OF THEM OUT.
Thank you Mr. Barry!
Another tax that will go up faster than your cable bill.
Thank you Mr. Barry. This sounds like an incentive for the north end vols to quit showing up so we will have to fund these stations with full time staff. We in Walnut Hill have a volunteer staff that is second to none and it seems the people on the south end keep trying to figure ways to mess it up. Let the people that like to live in the other areas pay their own way for once. we up here don’t ride the busses we help pay for either.
>>well why would you vote berry back in this year? hes not gona get to many votes hicking up fire taxes.there
Barry voted against raising the tax.
“Commissioner Steven Barry voted against supporting the $25 MSBU increase because no District 5 station will receive additional benefits.”
Homeowners get the shaft while major land owners like IP owning 2000 acres of fire hazard timber pays $75 per year.
This tax is county, not city.
To fund county fire operations.
Not city fire operations.
Pensacola is not getting any of this tax.
Operational expenses could be cut if two or three fire vehicles were not dispatched for every fender bender.
What they are not showing is how many of those calls went out while they were on another ca incident and needed a neighboring station to cover it. Riddle me this, how many of the staffed stations were on another call (since most have only one truck staffed), and had another station cover the other call yet were not penalized for it since they have 0 missed responses. Then check into the same situation with the few volunteer stations listed as missing the calls under the same circumstances. The departments need more support for BOTH career and volunteer staff, but I would bet that they did not “miss” as many calls as reported.
well why would you vote berry back in this year? hes not gona get to many votes hicking up fire taxes.there you go its all about money.is it time for commiosioners to get a raise to.
What is needed in Molino is an ambulance. That would ease the call load for Molino and surrounding areas. Mostt of the calls are medical related. An ambulance would best serve the area.
Jane I agree 100% with you. Where is money for our MOLINO fire department. Our men work just as hard and the NORTH end of the county is always there to help others. We are the HEARTLAND up here and deserve our fair share!!!
I looks like the volunteer houses are better at doing the job. The houses that are doing bad need a staff change, not more $$. The North end ALWAYS gets the shaft. Add the $$ to the South end, where the $$ is going to be used.
Get who got the shaft again? Yep, the north end.we’re paying more for for pensacola and get nothing in return.
when the fire tax was start it was not the taxes for land now it is added when is it going to stop going up we pay to much taxes now it needs to STOP
Ever thought about supporting the volunteers to create a recruiting campaign to SAVE this fire tax hike, Mike?
Tell me how much money could be saved to actually help volunteers of YOUR community?
You are unfortunately a political leader making decisions through money. From where I am from, we call that a questionable leader.
If the city of Pensacola gets extra help the north end should too. Tired of paying Pensacola’s expenses and getting nothing in return. thank you for voting against this Stephen Barry!