By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            One of the most difficult issues the Levy County Commission faced at its first budget meeting of the year was whether to honor a request by Public Safety Director Mitch Harrell to fund three full-time firefighter positions for the board’s Morriston fire station at a cost of $241,000.

            The fact that the board was even considering such a move was groundbreaking and controversial. The board has never before attempted to provide full-time firefighters for its rural fire stations in Morriston, Fowlers Bluff, or Rosewood, stations that sometimes are barely functional for lack of staffing.

            Up to this point, the county commission has contracted with city fire departments to provide coverage to rural fire districts outside their municipal boundaries. Those rural county fire stations struggle to attract volunteer firefighters or part-time firefighters willing to work in isolated outposts for part-time wages. The county commission provides lump-sum payments to city fire departments to cover calls outside their municipal boundaries.

            Chiefland Fire Rescue was frequently being forced to leave its city unprotected when firefighters were required to respond to calls in the county. The city commission on May 24 voted unanimously to hire three full-time firefighters at a cost of $199,000 to provide increased coverage. The three positions are being funded by a relatively new city fire property assessment.

            Heavy Call Load

            What separated Morriston from the other two county rural departments in Fowlers Bluff and Rosewood was its heavy call load. Williston Fire Rescue responds to as many as 300 calls annually in the Morriston fire district “due to lack of coverage in that area,” according to Williston Fire Chief Lamar Stegall.

            Williston employs 35 part-time paid firefighters who earn state retirement benefits, making it the largest and arguably best paid part-time fire department in the county. No other fire department in Levy County gives part-time firefighters state retirement benefits. The Williston City Council made the decision to provide retirement benefits to part-time firefighters to improve recruitment and retention of firefighters. Chiefland now has seven full-time firefighters who earn state retirement benefits.

            The high number of calls to Morriston was impacting Stegall’s budget, however. He was able to work out an additional agreement with Harrell and the county commission to provide coverage to Morriston when the rural station had no one to respond. The city is being paid $175 per call to respond to Morriston when the station has no coverage. The contract remains in place.

            Levy County Commissioners voted 3-2 on May 18 to approve Harrell’s request to hire three full-time firefighters for the Morriston fire station. Commissioner Matt Brooks voted against the motion and questioned whether it was wise to commit that much funding to a fire station that was already being served by Williston Fire Rescue. The $241,000 didn’t have to be added to Harrell’s budget. The money was already in the Department of Public Safety spending plan  but had to be approved by county commissioners for hiring the Morriston firefighters.

            600 Morriston Calls

            Harrell estimated that the Morriston fire station, based on statistics from the past two years, receives around 600 fire and EMS calls annually. Brooks calculated that allocating $241,000 to hire three Morriston firefighters for 600 calls annually means the county is paying $420 per call.

            Brooks felt that creating those positions could draw dual-certified EMT/firefighters away from the county’s ambulance service, which already struggles to retain personnel. Brooks said Harrell has yet to provide him with a plan for improving recruitment and retention of staff at the Department of Public Safety.

            “If we do this we’re risking losing other staff that could be drawn from their current positions to go after the fire positions,” Brooks said. He believes some EMTs might find it attractive to move from the back of an ambulance, which is a more difficult work environment, to a fire station for a $2 per hour cut in pay.

            Harrell responded that the big problem for Levy County Emergency Medical Service is attracting and retaining paramedics, not EMTs.

            “I also look and when I don’t see anyone out there (at Morriston) I cringe, just like when I see red on our schedule and know someone’s working that doesn’t want to be there,” Harrell responded.

            Otter Creek Station?

            There are other issues boiling beneath the surface. The western and central portions of Levy County are largely dependent on fire coverage from the Chiefland and Cedar Key fire departments. Otter Creek has no fire department and depends on Chiefland for coverage and Fowlers Bluff also depends on Chiefland. Rosewood often depends on Cedar Key for coverage.

            Harrell briefly discussed with commissioners the concept of establishing a county fire station in Otter Creek, the geographical center of Levy County, but the commission wasn’t ready to take on that burden. The county commission funds its rural fire coverage with a property fire assessment and expanding coverage to include Otter Creek potentially could lead to a higher fire assessment.

            Moving Funding?

However, in an interview after the commission meeting, Brooks said he believes it might be a better move to spend the $241,000 that’s currently committed to Morriston on a centralized fire station in Otter Creek that could respond to calls in Rosewood, Fowlers Bluff, Gulf Hammock, Morriston, Chiefland, Inglis, Yankeetown and Cedar Key. He said Williston could continue to cover Morriston’s calls at $175 per call.

            “I know Chiefland, Rosewood, and Cedar Key over the years have had to go out of their zones and help cover the county,” Brooks said. “Chief Harrell talked about wanting to try to position someone in Otter Creek to better cover those areas. I think that would be money better spent over there. Williston has no problem recruiting people to work for them. Levy County has problems recruiting and retaining people in public safety. I felt it was easier for Williston to cover Morriston for less money. They’ve got 30 plus people on their roster so that allows for plenty of people to cover Morriston.”

            Stegall said he has no problem continuing to cover Morriston calls under the arrangement that pays his department $175 per call.

            “As long as we can continue to run it from our station we can continue to do it. It wasn’t the call load so much as it was the budget impact that was killing me,” Stegall said. “The $175 takes care of the budgetary impact and my people can handle the calls. That wasn’t the issue for us. It was the budget.”

            Rural Wildfires Endanger Homes

            Commissioner Lilly Rooks made the motion to approve the three full-time positions for Morriston. She was joined by Commissioners Rock Meeks and Mike Joyner in approving the new firefighter positions for Morriston. Commission Chairman John Meeks and Brooks voted against the motion.

            Rooks, one of the original four people to establish the Rosewood Volunteer Fire Department, said she is aware of the growing number of people living in rural areas of the county, and the danger of wildfires spreading quickly to threaten rural residential property.

            In 1984, a wildfire came close to her Rosewood home. She was the owner of a store at the time and had driven to Cedar Key to make a deposit. She hurried back home thinking she may have left something on the stove. The fire, as it turned out, started as a control burn that spread out of control.

            When she arrived home, people living in Cedar Key were in her yard fighting to prevent the fire from reaching her home. The fire was behind her home by then. People had climbed on the roof of a neighboring home trying to stop the fire from burning the home to the ground.

            Living in Woods

“Now we have so many people living in the woods; you go down the side roads off County Road 345 and there are all kinds of people that live on those roads with only one way out,” she said.

            A reporter observed that it appears Rooks doesn’t have much fire protection in her area of the county.

            “We have Cedar Key if they don’t have a fire in Cedar Key,” Rooks responded.

            Asked if she thought lack of fire protection was a problem throughout the rural areas of Levy County, Rooks responded, “Yes.”

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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting May 18, 2021; Posted June 5, 2021