Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
I would not trust most people to know how to operate an organization like the VPS or lifesaving services. The county has experience with it, people who are specially trained to handle it, know about it, know what to do, what not to do. Especially when it comes to handling the services for the entire county, not just a singular community in that county - no matter how many people live in that singular community.
There are thousands of people living in Sumter County, who do /not/ live in the Villages. They need to have reliable, trustworthy, efficient service too.
If you vote "yes" you'll be putting 100% of the authority and trust to do the RIGHT thing - not just what's best for you personally - in the hands of a real estate developer (and his family) who has no actual experience in handling medical or fire emergencies.
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And that is the reason there will be a board supervising the VPS agency. After 2 years the "elected" (versus appointed) members (majority of the board) will be selected by voters. I also believe we have a strong Chief (Chief Cain) that does an outstanding job of provided awesome and timely delivery of emergency (and non-emergency) services to the residents.
Also, apparently the county did NOT have enough experience in running a fire and EMS department...or we wouldn't be having the conversation. Once again I will point out extremely long time delays for the AMR ambulances the county provided. I would also be willing to believe there are talented people in The Villages that have the ability and knowledge to manage the new VPS department.
Your point about the remainder of the county needing reliable and timely service is also an important issue. However is it my responsibility to pay for the fire/EMS services to the rest of the county? If one were to follow recommended staffing standards produced by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) you would see that response times should be 8 minutes or less 90% of the time. Wonder how many fire stations would be needed to be built and constructed to meet this standard in the remainder of the county? You willing to pay for that? I'm very pleased with the service delivery the VPS delivers in a TIMELY way.