By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Chiefland City Commissioners instructed Fire Chief James Harris Monday to prepare a report showing how much fire funding he plans to request from the Levy County Commission and to make sure it’s a number they can support.
The county pays the city to respond to fire calls and medical calls outside the city limits but the county currently pays less money for fire protection outside Chiefland than city residents pay for protection in the city.
Harris said he wants the county to match what the city residents are paying for fire protection. The county commission currently pays the city $297,635 from its fire tax for services outside the city limits. Chiefland residents pay $423,265 through its fire tax and property taxes for fire services.
“I’m just trying to make it fair where there’s not a big problem and our citizens are not subsidizing county fire,” Harris said. “We’re not asking them for more money than we put in. That’s the bottom line.”
Harris said the call load for the city and county aren’t exactly the same but they are relatively equal and he said it costs the city more money to run calls outside the city limits due to the cost of fuel alone. He said the city fought a fire at the old home of R.D. Skelton recently outside the city limits. City firefighters hauled around 10,000 gallons of water to the fire and the city paid for the water.
Mayor Chris Jones and Commissioner Norman Weaver said they wanted to see something in writing concerning the city’s fire funding request to the county before making a decision on whether they could support the number.
Discussion of how much the city would request from the county in fire funding was triggered by a letter from the county asking for the city’s request later this week.
Harris initially said he wanted to wait a month to see what other fire departments were requesting. He said he didn’t want to be viewed as the bad guy for filing a request early.
Jones said it wasn’t a matter of being the bad guy. He said it was a matter of figuring out how much the city spends on fire services and how much city residents pay in taxes for fire services and submitting a number based on those facts.
Harris said he would follow through on the mayor’s request.
“It’s going to cost more money next year,” Harris said.
Weaver asked how the city covers such a broad expanse of territory outside the city limits with existing staff.
“We can only do what we can do. What we’ve been doing is we keep one or two guys back at the fire station we got somebody left there if there’s a fire outside the city,” Harris said. “We had a fire last week in the middle of the night. I had volunteers and paid firefighters at the fire. I went out there and came back to the station so we would have coverage in the city. This was like 2 o’clock in the morning to 5 o’clock in the morning. We were able to manage the situation.”
Harris was asked if he knew the percentage of increase in county funding he would request. He said he didn’t have the information with him. He said he would have to add the city’s fire tax dollars to the property tax dollars to get the total city contribution.
“But the bottom line is you want to match what city residents are paying,” Harris said. “We go out to the same fires with the same people. I see no difference myself,” Harris said.
Weaver posed a “what if” question to Harris. He wondered what would happen if the city stopped fighting fires outside of its city limits? Would the city lose its county-fighting funds?
Harris said yes.
Hudson said the city can’t stop responding to fires outside the city limits.
“You’re not going to let something burn two miles out,” Hudson said.
Harris agreed.
“I’ve always said this, and I’ve said it forever – I’m not turning down nobody. That’s a person, that’s not the county. That’s somebody in trouble that needs help,” Harris said.
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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting April 25, 2022; Posted April 26, 2022
