CLEARWATER - The second item of business for the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners on Nov. 18 was elections of chair and vice chair to serve the remainder of 2008 and into 2009.
Commissioner Calvin Harris received a unanimous vote of confidence to become the new chair. Commissioner Karen Seel also received a unanimous vote for the position of vice chair.
The first item of business, which took place prior to the regular meeting, was the swearing in of newly elected commissioners Nancy Bostock and Neil Brickfield, as well as Seel, who won her election bid for another term, and Commissioner Ken Welch, who ran unopposed.
Nov. 18 also was the first meeting with County Administrator Robert LaSala.
The agenda was fairly light and included a discussion on steps the county was taking to reduce its $14.5 million deficit in EMS spending.
Dick Williams, director of EMS and Fire Administration, told the board that plans to train civilians to handle medical emergency 911 calls was proceeding. He said the new program should be in place by March, 2009.
He explained that currently medical emergency calls were transferred to paramedics at Paramedics Plus (Sunstar). After the civilians become National Certified Dispatchers that practice will stop.
“We anticipate it will be less expensive for the calls to be handled by civilians versus paramedics,” Williams said.
He said there should be no change in quality of service or response times to emergencies.
“In fact, response times should be faster,” he said. “This is how they’re doing it all over the United States.”
He said the county’s response times were among the fastest in the nation - 4.5 minutes - compared to the national average of 10 minutes.
He said the county received an award for being the best 911 in response time in September of 2001.
Commissioners also voted to receive a report on St. Petersburg’s actions toward annexation of a portion of Tierra Verde. A unanimous vote directed the chairman to send a letter to St. Petersburg expressing the commission’s opposition to the move.
The commission believes that the annexation may not be legal and has concerns about St. Petersburg’s ability to provide police service.
The Friendship TrailBridge was discussed at length and commissioners voted unanimously to join with Hillsborough County to seek funding from the state. The middle of the bridge was closed on Nov. 8 due to structural deficiencies.
Commissioners agreed that something needed to be done, but stressed strongly that no local taxpayer dollars should be spent.
Pete Yauch, director of public works and transportation, said it was too early to talk about demolition of the bridge. He said if it turned out that the bridge did have to be demolished it would be the joint responsibility of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
“We don’t want to throw in the towel on the bridge,” Harris said. “A lot of people us it and someday we may be able to afford it again.”
Estimates on what it would take to make the bridge safe again are expected to be available in December.
