Fruitland Park commissioners voted Thursday night to disband the city’s fire department in favor of contracting with Lake County Fire Rescue for emergency services.
The unanimous vote, which wasn’t a surprise following a contentious November meeting, means that Lake County Fire Rescue will provide service to the original portion of the city. That contract wouldn’t affect fire protection in The Villages portion of the city, as that is provided by The Villages Public Safety Department.
Unlike in past meetings where emotions have run high when the fire department’s future has been at stake, only a handful of residents spoke in favor of keeping the department. Fire Chief Donald Gilpin had released a PowerPoint presentation earlier this week showing the reasons he believed the department should remain at the local level, but he didn’t speak during the relatively short hearing.
After the meeting, a visibly upset Gilpin said he asked if he would be allowed to give the presentation but didn’t receive an answer back before the meeting. Despite several people speaking, including at least one firefighter, Gilpin never approached the microphone after Mayor Chris Cheshire opened the floor for public comment.
The ongoing issue of having Lake County Fire Rescue replace the city’s current fire department last came to a head on Nov. 12 when commissioners instructed City Manager Gary La Venia to explore the possibility. The decision came after La Venia presented commissioners with an email he received in October from Lake County Deputy Manager John Molenda that said Lake County Fire Rescue often was being called upon to cover the original portion of the city when it’s fire department goes “out of service.”
Molenda said Fruitland Park’s Station 56 was out of service 61 times in the first seven months of this year. He said there were more out of service days in the first five months of this year than in all of 2019, when there was an average of 3.7 times per month as opposed to the current eight times per month.
At that meeting, Gilpin said many of the out-of-service calls involved mandatory training days, which takes the city’s only staffed engine out of service, as well as some instances for equipment maintenance. But he said he wasn’t sure how many of the 61 out of service instances were because of training versus a lack of staffing – a response that angered Mayor Chris Cheshire, who chastised Gilpin and said he wished he had been more prepared to answer pertinent questions about his department.
That November meeting also saw Gilpin and Commissioner Patrick DeGrave, who spent 39 years in local government in Wisconsin and Illinois and made the motion to contract with Lake County Fire Rescue, tangle over various questions about the fire department. DeGrave said it always seemed to become an emotional issue when the fire department is discussed – a similar discussion erupted during a meeting in January and in October 2019 – and pointed out that the issue has been on the table for the two years he’s been in office.
After a long discussion, DeGrave said the issue had been talked about enough and contracting with Lake County to provide services would be a much better deal, both financially and in the coverage provided. Commissioner John Mobilian, who seconded DeGrave’s motion Thursday night, agreed, adding that it came down to finances for him and the fact that the city can’t afford to fund its own fire department as it continues to grow.
Under the new agreement, Lake County Fire Rescue would begin servicing the original part of the city on Jan. 1. But a provision exists to enlist that agency’s services earlier, presumably if there are issues with continuing to staff the current department until it is officially disbanded.
The agreement calls for the city to pay the county $645,246 for providing the services through Sept. 30, 2021. Payments will be made in equal monthly installments of $71,694 on or before the 15th of each month. Those payments will come from the fire assessment fees that are being paid by Fruitland Park residents.
The agreement also calls for the city to continue maintaining its fire station that is located next to City Hall on Berckman Street. A Lake EMS unit will continue to work out of the firehouse and the county will purchase a variety of equipment from the city in installments of $50,825 over two years. That includes a 2005 Pierce Contender engine, a 2000 ALF Freightliner engine, a 1997 Ford F-350 brush truck and a 2020 Chevy Tahoe, among other things.
The new arrangement also would mean that the residents of the original portion of the city would see their medical services go from basic to advanced life support, as the Lake County Fire Rescue crews will include firefighter/paramedics. The current department provides basic life support, with Lake EMS providing the higher level of service when ambulances arrive at calls.
