Lack of funds hampers fire improvements in Lee County

LEESBURG — Attempts to improve fire protection and lower insurance rates in Lee County, especially its rural areas, have dominated conversations by Lee County commissioners for more than a year.

County Manager Ron Rabun, who is in the midst of preparing his first budget proposal for Lee County’s government, brought a dose of stark reality to the public this week, however, when he said funds are not available to carry out those plans.

“The current funding level the board has is not sufficient to open new stations and buy new equipment and hire new people,” Rabun said during Tuesday night’s monthly meeting.

Rabun made that pronouncement in response to Lee Probate Judge John Wheaton, who appeared before the commission asking what progress has been made to provide fire service in the sparsely-populated sections of north and northeastern Lee County, where residents pay the most for fire insurance.

Wheaton said he’s lived in northern Lee County for 53 years and “wouldn’t live anywhere else,” but he and others in that section of the county want to see improved fire protection.

County Commission Chairman Rick Muggridge and Commissioner Greg Frich of the Redbone District told Wheaton that progress has been made in the past 12 months. A consulting firm was hired to help commissioners determine what they needed to do to lower the ISO ratings.

A fire station has opened in Smithville and is staffed with full-time personnel.

Cross-training of Emergency Medical Service technicians has started and soon Lee County hopes to have about two dozen EMS employees become certified firefighters. Leases have been signed to obtain the property rights to two locations in northeastern Lee County for future stations. Mutual aid agreements have been negotiated with fire departments in adjacent counties.

Bobby Watkins has been named interim public safety director to oversee the cross-training and to help merge the fire department and EMS unit, which will almost double the firefighting capability in terms of personnel.

Some effort has been made to solicit volunteers, but the response has been slower than most commissioners had hoped. It’s early in the process, officials say, and potential volunteers still don’t know what benefits may exist if they serve, and there’s no equipment for them to operate.

During the assessment process, Rabun said deficiencies in equipment were found that has caused the commission to spend emergency reserves.

“It’s a long and expensive process,” Rabun said. “Anyone who might have expected to get fire protection in the north quickly and on the cheap, well, it’s just not possible. … I don’t have immediate solutions.”

Commissioner Dennis Roland expressed his frustration with the lack support from fellow county commissioners and the lack of services in Smithville and northern Lee County during the discussion. Roland said when he was elected eight years ago, he attempted to begin the cross-training of EMS personnel. Only recently, he said, did a majority of commissioners agree and implement his idea.

“Just send your tax dollars and keep your complaints because you probably never going to get nothing,” Roland said, speaking to Wheaton. “Why should you have volunteers when they (other areas, particularly southern Lee County) have paid firemen? They’ve taken your tax dollars and subsidized them.”

Muggridge disagreed with Roland, noting that progress has been made despite no new revenue. The county’s frugal budgeting has come with a cost, Muggridge said.

“Part of that cost is maintenance on our existing vehicles,” Muggridge said. “We haven’t maintained and replaced our rolling stock and there are issues in our equipment inventory.”

Muggride also believes the county needs to hire a full-time training director and a coordinator for the future volunteer firefighting force.

If the County Commission elects to add small stations in northeast Lee County, facilities would have to be constructed and fire engines, new or used, purchased for those stations, Muggridge said.

A slowdown in residential growth in Lee County has caused the revenue available to commissioners to remain mostly unchanged during the past several years. Commissioner Ed Duffy said a growth in this year’s tax digest of $230,000 is the first “new” money the commission has seen in the past five years.

Willie Snead, who also lives in northern Lee County, was a little more forceful in his criticism.

“I have heard a lot of this same rhetoric … and I’m up to here with it,” Snead said. He complained that it took firefighters an hour and 10 minutes to reach a recent field fire on his property.

Snead said it’s unfair that people in the south end of the county have “everything while we feel like stepchildren.”

“In the last 20 years, something could have been done about this,” Snead said. “If you have to raise taxes, raise taxes.”

He said Macon County residents pay a surcharge to finance improved fire protection, a move he would not oppose.

“I’ve thought about filing a lawsuit against the county for taxation without representation,” he said.

Roland, who said Snead’s family owns close to 1,000 acres in the county, said people in northern Lee County do have representation.

“One person cannot do it all,” Roland said.