County: VFD rate hike helps cut response time, buy new equipment

County: VFD rate hike helps cut response time, buy new equipment

From Staff Reports
October 4, 2008

County volunteer fire department rate increases have helped lower emergency call response times despite higher call levels, according to Santa Rosa officials. Departments have begun using the funds to buy new equipment and paying down debt, as well, according to a recent release.

In September 2007, the Santa Rosa County Board of Commissioners voted to approve an increase in the MSBU fire rate for the primarily volunteer stations of Allentown, Bagdad, Berrydale, East Milton, Harold, Munson, Pace, Skyline, and Jay.

The rate hikes were intended to improve fire and medical services, while maintaining a “no subsidy” ambulance contract, officials said.

The increased funding has helped the nine fire MSBU stations meet that goal with response time averages decreasing from 8 minutes 4 seconds to 7 minutes thirty seconds in urban areas and 10 minutes 58 seconds to 10 minutes 7 seconds for rural areas, according to County numbers released Thursday.

The number of calls they responded to actually increased from 4,104 to 5,052, officials note.

The increased MSBU funding is part of a five-year plan created by the newly-established Fire Services Executive Group.

The group meets monthly to review progress and address concerns and consists of chiefs from the nine stations, two community representatives and the Santa Rosa County Emergency Services Coordinator. It is tasked with coordinating budget planning and spending.

The average residential MSBU rate rose from $30 to $85 per year and approximately $3 million was collected and spent during the last fiscal year, officials note. Exact numbers will be available after October 31 when the books are officially closed.

For the first year of the plan, the group set the goals of increased firefighter safety and improved equipment. Purchases included updated communication equipment, firefighter personal protective gear and self-contained breathing apparatuses, all bringing a higher level of protection for firefighters, according to County information.

Debt reduction was also addressed with higher interest and balloon loans paid in full early for Allentown, Jay, and East Milton station houses and four trucks for Pace and Harold, say officials.

During October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008, MSBU departments funded the following improvements, according to County information:

The addition of four full-time firefighters/EMT personnel at the Pace and Skyline fire departments
Implementation of a stipend program for over 200 volunteer firefighters
Three fire trucks (Skyline and Pace departments)
Two brush trucks (Jay and Bagdad departments)
Four service vehicles (Bagdad, East Milton, Pace and Munson fire departments)
70 sets of fire protection gear to replace outdated equipment
60 two-way radios
100 pagers distributed among each fire department for dispatching
20 self-contained breathing apparatus units
Software updates that improve efficiency and meet state requirements for incident reporting

From October 1 2007- September 30, the nine MSBU volunteer stations responded to:

527 traffic accidents
3,017 calls for medical assistance
1,508 fires

Holley-Navarre, Midway, Avalon and Navarre Beach are special taxing districts and not part of the MSBU fire group. Gulf Breeze and Milton fire services are provided by their municipalities.