The Fruitland Park Fire Department appears to be on the verge of extinction.
That’s because a split Fruitland Park Commission decided Thursday night workshop to explore contracting with Lake County Fire Rescue for fire protection services in the city, excluding the neighborhoods in The Villages. The move, which came during an emotion-packed workshop, follows a similar plan from 2016 when the commission initially voted to disband the department but then reconsidered and halted a plan to consolidate its fire services with the county agency.
If the move comes to fruition – City Manager Gary La Venia was tasked with investigating the possibility – it would eliminate the city’s small fire department that largely depends on firefighters from other departments working “flex” schedules and volunteers.
The commission’s directive follows two days last week where the department didn’t have enough personnel to staff its engine for 24-hour periods. That issue largely set the tone for the 90-minute meeting, which started off with each commissioner offering their thoughts on the issue and Fire Chief Donald Gilpin explaining what had taken place.
“I was kind of shocked that we didn’t have coverage for 24 hours, not once but twice in a four- or five-day period,” Commissioner John Mobilian said. “I think it just shows the importance of stop kicking the can down the road and now we’ve got to talk about what to do with this situation.”
Gilpin said the department has a schedule and when shifts aren’t filled, they put out calls to the department’s 17 firefighters – 10 of whom work for other agencies on a full-time basis. He said they encountered issues filling spots for the first time in about two years and followed protocol by alerting Lake County Dispatch and advising them that the Fruitland Park engine was out of service. But he added that constant conversations about eliminating the department probably played into the issue.
“I have to understand that my staff has a life and that they are upset in going through this process over and over each year,” Gilpin said.
“Are you saying this was a work stoppage or you were on strike those two days”? Mayor Chris Cheshire quickly asked.
Gilpin said that wasn’t the case but the uncertainty with the department certainly played a factor in issue.
“What you have to understand is that each year that we go through this, we run into staffing issues,” he said.
Deputy Chief Tim Yoder agreed.
“Let’s be honest, this came up in December so now all of a sudden our morale is going back down,” he said.
Gilpin added that he was holding 10 firefighter applications and wouldn’t process them because the fate of the department hadn’t been decided – a statement that quickly drew the ire of Commissioner Patrick DeGrave, who spent 39 years in local government – including 16½ years as a police officer/sergeant – before moving to The Villages in June 2017.
“Chief, who directed you to freeze the hiring?” DeGrave asked.
“No one directed me to freeze the hiring,” Gilpin responded, adding that he wasn’t willing to spend taxpayer money to hire firefighters and then eliminate them a few months later if the department was disbanded.
DeGrave said it appeared to him that Gilpin and his staff were taking “proactive action” because the commission was doing its “fiduciary responsibility” by looking at alternative ways of providing emergency services to the city – a claim the interim chief denied.
Commissioners, Gilpin and Yoder then went back and forth on a variety of issues, from the fact that La Venia wasn’t notified that the engine was going to be out of service to the possible need to increase the annual $241 fire assessment fee paid by residents to future equipment and staffing needs, especially in times of emergencies like hurricanes or large-scale disasters.
Gilpin and Yoder also warned commissioners to iron out specifics when contracting with Lake County Fire Rescue, because they would lose “local control” and wouldn’t be able to guarantee how many engines were available to cover the city at any given time.
That prompted DeGrave to ask Gilpin if the current morale issues would prevent him from staffing the engine on a full-time basis moving forward, given that the city was exploring other fire protection options.
“I can’t answer that question for you because each person is an individual,” Gilpin said. “What I will tell you is that last time the contract was signed after the vote was made, the fire station was unstaffed.”
DeGrave, Mobilian and Vice Mayor John Gunter voted in favor of exploring options with Lake County Fire Rescue, while Mayor Chris Cheshire said he preferred to keep the department intact and hire a full-time fire chief. Bell said he would only support considering a county contract if the commission was unanimous in its decision because otherwise it could face the same kind of problems that arose in 2016 when a split vote was taken on consolidating the department.
Gilpin declined to comment after the meeting. Several firefighters who were in the audience went around shaking hands with each other and commissioners and Fruitland Park resident Rita Ranize, who is married to former Commissioner Rick Ranize, shouted across the room to Gilpin that she believed the decision was made before the workshop started.
The commission’s next step will be to consider the findings La Venia brings back to them and decide how to move forward. The date of that meeting hasn’t yet been set.
