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Officials: Largo Fire only viable choice
By WAYNE AYERS
| Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009 |
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BELLEAIR BLUFFS – With ballots on the fire referendum going out this week, Belleair Bluffs city officials continue to present the option of obtaining fire services from Largo as the only practical choice.
A packed crowd at Monday night’s City Commission workshop heard county official Mike Cooksey and Largo fire Chief Michael Wallace give a compelling cost/benefit analysis favoring the Largo alternative. Cooksey and Wallace are currently running the department following the firing of Bluffs fire Chief Patrick Competelli last week.
Cooksey knocked down the notion that the county would continue to pay 64 percent of the fire department’s cost following the town of Belleair’s pullout. That would nearly double the county’s expense and triple the millage rate of residents living in the unincorporated areas of Harbor Bluffs, Harbor Hills and Oakdale Manor.
“The Board of County Commissioners is not going to want to triple their taxes so that (Belleair Bluffs) can maintain their fire department,” Cooksey said.
If the referendum vote fails, Cooksey said he expected the county would pay the additional costs for one year and then contract with another provider for fire services to the unincorporated area.
Another problem could arise should Belleair Bluffs decide to retain its department with a lower level of services. Fewer firefighters on an engine could endanger mutual aid agreements with other departments, which require equal levels of services among the providers, Cooksey indicated.
The county is also likely to reassign the money currently being paid for paramedics, leaving the city to make up another $400,000, Wallace added.
With the Belleair pullout, Belleair Bluffs residents already face a near doubling of fire protection costs, from approximately $186 per household to $344. That cost would explode to approximately $957 per household for Bluffs residents if the unincorporated area pulled out, according to a cost analysis presented by City Clerk Debra Sullivan.
Contracting with Largo would provide Bluffs citizens the same level of fire service as now at significantly lower costs than going it alone, Wallace said. That cost per household is estimated to be $253.
Mayor Chris Arbutine joined in, endorsing the Largo move.
“It is the residents’ choice; higher taxes or lower taxes with the same services,” he said.
Though favoring the Largo alternative, Arbutine indicated a fire transition team, consisting of himself, Cooksey, Wallace, and City Clerk Debra Sullivan, “is preparing for all possible outcomes” depending on the outcome of the referendum vote.
A request by Fire Commissioner Joseph Barkley to have an unnamed source present alternative fire department cost figures gained a cool reception from Arbutine. He said such a proposal would need to first be reviewed by the transition team. Barkley agreed to the request.
The fate of the Bluffs fire station has been a concern of residents and some commission members. The Largo City Commission recently authorized a grant application for monies to construct a new firehouse in the Anona area. If built, that station would replace the outdated Bluffs station within several years, Chief Wallace has said.
Commissioner Suzy Sofer said she wants a guarantee to keep the Bluffs station open at least three to five years written into any contract signed with Largo. Wallace indicated that was probably doable.
Resident Carolyn Becker accused Wallace of making conflicting statements in the past concerning the station’s closing.
“I have no problem with contracting with Largo for fire services, but I do have a real problem with closing Station 43 and moving it out of our city,” Becker said.
Commissioner Hunt Brand said he agreed with the concerns over the fire station. Brand said that issue is “the one part of the deal I don’t like.”
However, Brand reminded the residents and commission members that proposals for the fire department had been presented and discussed at a Town Hall meeting held in July. At that time, he said, “We had a united front that the best option was to go with Largo.”
The facts have not changed since then, Brand said. To try and run the department without Belleair or adequate county support would mean “we would have one more year to just suffer before it all collapses.”
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Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
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