Quote:
Originally Posted by villagesff
To answer some of the questions. We are specifically talking about the Fire rescue. They, BOCC/ Arnold ere trying to take away. The ambulance transport could/ should be done by the FD as in most of the state.
Yes, with a possible caveat. The Villages FD could start transport as soon as legally possible. (Not as long as the naysayers say). We would have to increase some personnel, probably from the existing contract service.
As far as taxes and the rest of the county regular taxes and the Fire assessment for the rest of theSumter county would cover theirs. The county would also have to increase if the transport as well.
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Thank you for this.
The county would not take over TVFD in order to fix what is broken in TV, the county would take over in order to utilize funds and manpower from TVFD in order to try to fix what is broken in the rest of the county. The suburban nature of TV and the rural nature of most of the rest of the county require different approaches; a one-size-fits-all solution won't work. There is nothing good that could come of this.
While an independent taxing district would come with additional overhead, it may be the only way to protect TVFD by moving it out of reach of the county.
The current ambulance situation is a separate problem though it will likely be used to make changes in the FD service too. As I understand it from reading these posts, TVFD provides great, timely response for emergency calls but they do not transport patients. The ambulance transports patients but does not provide timely response. If TVFD was to provide transport service then they would need to increase staff and equipment.
No matter what happens we will likely be paying more in the future:
1. If the county takes over TVFD then the service will likely decline as resources are pulled away and costs will increase in an attempt to regain the service levels. If the county does not take over TVFD then costs will increase as they attempt to provide the same service levels in the rest of the county.
2. If an independent taxing district is established then our FD assessment might decrease but since the county will no longer receive FD assessments from TV, they will need to increase property taxes to make up for the loss.
3. If TVFD is tasked to provide ambulance/transport services then they will need funding for additional equipment and manpower.
I don't mind paying a little more for better services. When given an opportunity, I'll vote for the addition of ambulance/transport services to TVFD and an independent district to run it.