By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            Chiefland City Commissioners hired three additional full-time firefighters on May 24, and for the first time in years, Fire Chief James Harris could breathe a sigh of relief.

            In the past, Harris sometimes had no fire protection in Chiefland when the only Chiefland firefighter on duty was summoned to a call outside the city limits.

            Harris said the city is required by its contract with the county to respond to automatic aid calls outside the city. In many cases, when the city had one captain on duty, the city was left unprotected when the county call was answered.

            “If that fell on one of the days we didn’t have two people there, we got to go to that call. There’s nobody left in Chiefland. Our city’s EMS and fire are uncovered,” he told city commissioners.

            The county commission has funded about half of the city’s fire budget until now. With the additional city fire tax money, the city is taking on a much bigger share of the cost. Its call load is also rising.

            The hiring of three additional firefighters will give the city two firefighters on duty at the fire station. If the city is called outside the city limits, at least one firefighter will remain in the city to respond to local calls.

            Harris pleaded with commissioners to use the new city fire tax to fund the additional firefighters. The board voted unanimously to hire the firefighters.

            “That’s what we done the fire assessment for,” Harris said. “Now we need to show the people what we’re doing with the money. Instead of wasting it, holding it, or putting it in a savings account, we need to hire more people because that’s what we need.”

            The new firefighters will start work this month at $11 an hour. The total cost of hiring the firefighters is $199,000. Harris said he has the turnout gear and extrication equipment on hand for the new employees.

            The city’s new fire truck is nearly constructed. The city has paid half the cost of the new fire engine, according to Harris.

            He said the fire tax will generate an additional $66,000 between now and the start of the new budget year on Oct. 1. He said the commission must decide how to spend the money. He said they could make an additional payment on the new fire engine as one option.

            Last year, Chiefland Fire Rescue responded to 214 calls outside the city and there were 95 shifts when there was only one captain available to respond to all Chiefland calls. On many of those shifts, the city was left unprotected.

            Chiefland’s total calls for 2020 were 1,700, compared to 1,000 for Newberry, 1,492 for High Springs, 2,235 for Williston, and 2,500 for Lake City.

            Three hundred of those Williston calls were to cover the Morriston fire district when the county didn’t have firefighters available to cover the calls at its Morriston fire station.

            There were questions from Commissioner Rollin Hudson about the numbers being cited for hiring the new Chiefland firefighters.

            Given that these full-time firefighters will receive state retirement, and state retirement costs for the city rise every year, Hudson said the costs for these firefighters would probably continue to rise as well.

            “This is a bottom-line number and it will change over the years and it’s going this way,” he said pointing to the ceiling, “not that away,” pointing toward the floor.

            Hudson said he wasn’t opposed to hiring the firefighters but he felt the commissioners needed to be aware that the cost of the new positions wouldn’t remain at current levels.

            Hudson was also concerned about whether it was legal for the city to use the city fire assessment funds to pay for the city fire department answering calls outside the city limits.

            City Attorney Norm Fugate said the city hired a professional consulting firm to calculate how the fire assessment could be used. Fugate said the consultant “made adjustments for that.”

            “So the assessment you’re imposing was not based on any obligation of our fire department performing outside the city limits,” Fugate said. “Their study accounted for all that.”’

            Harris said his department hasn’t been successful recruiting volunteer firefighters or part-time firefighters. He said that was the reason he opted to hire three professionals with fire assessment money.

            “We have tried and tried and tried for 10 years to get volunteers. We just can’t get them. We cannot get volunteers. Now we can’t get part-timers,” Harris said.

            Harris said he spent enough money on overtime last year to have hired one firefighter.

            “Our overtime budget has been decimated. “We’re over the overtime budget trying to keep it staffed,” Harris said.

            Harris said he has money set aside for part-time firefighters and he will continue to try to recruit them. He said it would be helpful to have part-time firefighters to cover shifts when full-timers call in sick or take vacation.

            With the three new firefighters, Chiefland Fire Rescue has seven firefighters on staff including Harris, but the chief is on light duty for now due to back surgery.

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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting May 24, 2021; Posted June 4, 2021