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Redington EMS station stays open
By WAYNE AYERS
| Article published on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/091509_bhb-01.jpg) |
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| Station 26, the EMS first responder station that serves the Redington communities and Indian Shores, is goint to stay open. |
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REDINGTON SHORES – After months of uncertainty, the county has decided to fund Station 26, the EMS first responder station that serves the Redington communities and Indian Shores.
The decision was announced in a letter from Pinellas County Director of Public Safety Services Richard Weir to Redington Shores Mayor Bert Adams. Adams made the announcement at the Sept. 10 town commission meeting.
Adams, along with mayors Jim Lawrence of Indian Shores, Bill Queen of North Redington Beach and Nick Simons of Redington Beach, had recently met with Weir to plead for the station to remain open.
“We lobbied him pretty hard,” Adams said.
In the letter, Weir said the county had reached an agreement with the Pinellas Suncoast Fire and Rescue District that would “allow the station to remain in service providing ALS first responder service to your community.”
The agreement includes county funding for the paramedic position with Pinellas Suncoast funding the second firefighter/EMT position.
Weir went on to say he appreciated “the cooperative spirit which has allowed us to find ways to continue to serve the emergency medical services needs of our residents and businesses.”
The county’s decision to keep the EMS station open amid budget cuts came as a surprise, as its closure had been widely expected.
“So we did keep Station 26,” Adams told the commission after reading Weir’s letter.
The town was already making plans in anticipation of the station’s departure, and commissioners were issuing warnings of the effects on emergency response time.
“Common sense says that the EMS crews are not going to respond as fast coming across the bridge or from Madeira as they will from here,” Commissioner Casey Wojcik said in March. Vice Mayor John Branch had been even more emphatic, saying that victims needing a defibrillator “better have their cemetery lots picked out.”
Plans to have a local ambulance service open a facility nearby were in the works after Adams told the commission in July “it looks as if Station 26 will disappear.”
Library funding OK’d
After putting off a vote to fund the Gulf Beaches Public Library last month, the Board of Commissioners agreed to sign the agreement at the commission’s Sept. 9 regular meeting. Redington Shores is part of a five-community consortium that provides financial support to the library.
The commissioners had objected to a proposed amendment to the interlocal agreement, put forth by Treasure Island, that would have allowed a community to withdraw from the cooperative for a time, and then rejoin without penalty.
That has apparently been changed to require that a new agreement be drawn up and approved by all the communities whenever a city wants to rejoin.
Commissioner Lee Holmes, who is a member of the Library Board, recommended the commission approve full funding for the library, “at least for the first payment.” The commission unanimously agreed to do so.
All participating communities have now approved the Gulf Beaches Library funding agreement, Library Board chairman Nick Simons said.
Retiring Library Board member Sharon Danielsen, who gave up her seat to allow Holmes to join the board, was honored by the commission. Holmes praised Danielsen for doing “a fantastic job” during her three years of service to the board.
Danielsen was a key player in rescuing the library from near collapse during the institution’s leadership and funding difficulties last year.
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Article published on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009
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