County facing growing requests for fire funding

ALACHUA COUNTY – Several changes may soon be coming to the way the county funds rural fire protection services.

The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) is expected to convene a joint meeting with the Town of LaCrosse on March 1. Although many issues may be up for discussion, two will certainly be the county's handling of its contract for fire services with Melrose and recent requests for additional fire services funding from Windsor, Cross Creek and Newberry.

At their last joint meeting in March 2015, the only topic on LaCrosse's agenda was the need for additional funding for the town's fire department due to increased calls in nearby unincorporated portions of the county.

After weeks of discussions, the BOCC suggested LaCrosse either increase its property taxes or eliminate its fire department. The latter option would result in reliance on the service of county fire departments located in the cities of Alachua, which is 10-15 minutes away, and Waldo, which is 30 minutes away, for the nearly 90 acres of properties in LaCrosse's district.

Ultimately, LaCrosse chose to increase taxes to keep the fire station and reduce the cost of property owners' insurance. Insurance companies can double or sometimes triple property owners' rates if their property is located farther than five miles from the closest fire department.

With what now appears to be a county increase in funding for Melrose, Windsor is asking for additional funding with several smaller cities cuing up behind them to ask for the same.

Bill Northcutt, Alachua County Fire Services Chief, says he expects to be out of town when the joint BOCC/LaCrosse meeting takes place, but explained that the cost to the county for Melrose did not increase the county's budget, despite reports to the contrary.

“The county had one paid employee located at the Melrose Fire Department for 40 hours a week. We paid the employee's salary, etc., plus provided them $55,000. Now we are asking Melrose to put two full-time employees of their own out there at a total cost of $234,767. We are paying them the same total amount this year, although we are no longer paying our staff to be one of the people out there,” said Northcutt.

The rates that the smaller cities are currently being paid was determined by previous Chief Will May. “I don't think Chief May considered the total cost of the individual departments in any financial agreements,” said Northcutt. “The philosophy that Chief May used was based on his calculation of what a department with two people would cost.”

Since that time, the population has grown in the rural areas of Alachua County. According to Northcutt, there hasn't been a review since fiscal year 2010.

“There is not just one global philosophy as to how this [funding] should work,” he said. The BOCC has several ways they can look at how to fund smaller community fire departments.

One way is by the value of the properties each department protects. Another by how much each community generates under the Municipal Service Taxing Unit. A third by looking at the number of responses each department attends. Then whether there are two people on duty or four may also be considered.

The final item the BOCC has to consider is how to determine the funding source, the item Northcutt says the BOCC will struggle with the most.

All interested parties are expected to attend the BOCC meeting scheduled for 10 a.m., March 1, for discussion and potential decision on a uniform philosophy for funding the smaller fire partners in Alachua County.

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