[Goldwingnut]

Many of you know who I am and what I do. I try to bring you the facts of what is happening in my videos. That being said I am undertaking a new project and I would like your inputs on it.

I am putting together a video that will address the Independent Fire District issue. I am putting together all the facts and information I have gleaned from my time working with it as a CDD Supervisor, an interview/meeting I had with Kenny Blocker last week, and from what I have learned as a Sumter County Commissioner. I'll look at the issue from all sides and discuss areas that others can't or haven't discussed. I intend to cover the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of this issue.

What I need from each of you is what your questions and concerns are so I can address the most pressing of these in the video. Please leave your question here in this thread, private message me, or email me.

Please spare us all any uneducated and uninformed rants of how this is going to screw over The Villages residents and is just a ploy to fatten the developer's pockets. For those posts, put them on that other website that hates everything about The Villages, it will gladly take your clickbait. My goal of this post is to get your questions and concerns and try to address them in the video.

Thanks,

[Dond1959]

Don, thank you for doing this. Clarification is needed for the following:
1. What will the BOCC process be for reducing the property tax assessment for the reduced budget requirements in 2023?
2. Is it possible to give an estimate for the impact on a $300,000 or $400,000 home? Could it show the fire levy and the potential reduction in property taxes?
3. A discussion of how we got here, with the BOCC appointing a committee to look at fire and ambulance services and the committee recommending combining Sumter and Villages departments.
4. A link or description on how to get your own homes estimated fire levy.


Thanks.

[Mleeja]

What happens if the Fire District is not approved in November? How is the new ambulance service tied to the Fire District? What happen to the ambulance service if the Fire District is not approved?

[Stu from NYC]

Thanks Don

How will this affect the response time when someone needs help quickly? To me that is much more important than a few dollars of cost.

[twoplanekid]

Hi Don,


1. Will the number of ambulances covering the Villages area increase, decrease or remain the same excluding spares compared to the previous ambulance service?

2. Will each firehouse have only one ambulance with another firehouse ambulance used to cover when that one is being used? How will that affect response time?

3. Will the ambulance in service as a first responder unit then transport that person to the hospital? How will that affect response time for other calls in that same area?

4. Will other fire vehicles respond with the ambulance?

5. Will ambulances respond to a fire call as a standard procedure?

6. If adding one ambulance per station, what is the anticipated additional personnel needed at that station?

I am trying to get a better understanding of the issues of "response time" and staffing.

Thanks for doing this!

[rustyp]

Community Development District 8 will host a question-and-answer forum on the upcoming vote on The Villages Independent Fire Control and Rescue District.

The official CDD 8 forum will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3 at FishHawk Recreation Center.

Residents are encouraged to bring their questions and concerns to this meeting.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Dond1959

Don, thank you for doing this. Clarification is needed for the following:
1. What will the BOCC process be for reducing the property tax assessment for the reduced budget requirements in 2023?
2. Is it possible to give an estimate for the impact on a $300,000 or $400,000 home? Could it show the fire levy and the potential reduction in property taxes?
3. A discussion of how we got here, with the BOCC appointing a committee to look at fire and ambulance services and the committee recommending combining Sumter and Villages departments.
4. A link or description on how to get your own homes estimated fire levy.


Thanks.

Thanks for the questions. Here's some quick answers to some of them.

1. Here's an earlier post with the description of what is happening on the county side of this issue - Independent Fire District Cost Impact Information

2. & 4. Start with Florida Fire districts quicksearch to find out the estimated fire assessment. I'll go into the math in more detail in the video.

3. I'll touch on this in the video but not in great detail. There is a wealth of information available online, I'd suggest with researching the Daily Sun's new article on the topic from last summer. The bottom line is that the response times for the ambulance service (AMR) to get onsite for transport sucked, the BOCC formed a committee to figure out what to do, the BOCC made the final decision to have the FDs take on the ambulance/transport service like most other FDs do in FL. An off shoot of this was the formation of an IFD. Our state representative put forward a bill for the formation and it passed with unanimous (I believe unanimous to be correct) approval by the house, passed by the state senate, and signed by the Governor, the next step is the public approval - the November 8th referendum.

Thanks again for your input.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Mleeja

What happens if the Fire District is not approved in November? How is the new ambulance service tied to the Fire District? What happen to the ambulance service if the Fire District is not approved?

The ambulance service is independent of the IFD referendum, it will stay at the fire stations whatever the outcome of the vote.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by twoplanekid

Hi Don,


1. Will the number of ambulances covering the Villages area increase, decrease or remain the same excluding spares compared to the previous ambulance service?

2. Will each firehouse have only one ambulance with another firehouse ambulance used to cover when that one is being used? How will that affect response time?

3. Will the ambulance in service as a first responder unit then transport that person to the hospital? How will that affect response time for other calls in that same area?

4. Will other fire vehicles respond with the ambulance?

5. Will ambulances respond to a fire call as a standard procedure?

6. If adding one ambulance per station, what is the anticipated additional personnel needed at that station?

I am trying to get a better understanding of the issues of "response time" and staffing.

Thanks for doing this!

Thanks Rick, most of this isn't about the IFD but I can answer most of these based on the interview I had with Kenney Blocker as I asked similar questions.

1. Currently AMR runs approximately 6 ambulances to cover Sumter county, it may be a few more but not many. Starting 1 October each VPSD fire station will have an ambulance so the number for just the VPSD covered areas will be 8 or 9 Plus the county fires stations will also have 6 ambulance units stationed at their fire stations.

2. Just as with the fire trucks, when a unit is out on a run the other units from other stations would respond if there was a second call in their area. Yes, there may be a slight increase in response time but not appreciable because we have so many stations close together.

3. Yes, these are first response and transport units, so yes there will be some downtime during patient handoff at the hospital. Just as in #2 the other stations provide backup coverage when a unit is occupied.

4. The station responds to calls as a team so they have all their assets available to deal with a situation.

5. See #4

6. Staffing has already been addressed, my understanding is that the rapid response vehicles are being retired and replaced by the ambulances at each station, most of the staffing changes are lateral.

Bottom line is with more units there is more flexibility and less impact on response times for service.

Hope this helped.

Thanks,

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

Thanks Don

How will this affect the response time when someone needs help quickly? To me that is much more important than a few dollars of cost.

VPSD assets normally arrive at an incident in under 5 minutes. With the ambulances becoming an integral part of each station, the ambulance response time should be the same. There will be more resources (ambulances) available providing greater flexibility on deployment when there is a lot of activity, this should greatly reduce the response times over what was experienced by many with AMR.

[Rainger99]

Can you provide background on how services are provided now? I live in Wildwood - do they provide any fire or ambulance service to the residents? If not, who provides it now? Is it the Villages, the County, or some other entity?

And what is the current budget for fire and ambulance services? Are there different budgets depending on whether you live in Wildwood or outside Wildwood?

You are a great source of information. Thanks.

[twoplanekid]

Thanks Don for your response. With double the ambulances in service, response time should dramatically improve.

I can also understand why costs to Sumter county residents living outside of the Villages might increase. And agree with you that “my understanding is that the rapid response vehicles are being retired and replaced by the ambulances at each station, most of the staffing changes are lateral.” So, there should be very little or no increase costs for payroll, fuel and building space needed for this change by Village residents. The new ambulances will be depreciated over their service life so their cost will be spread out.

I understand you believe that the costs for Villages may actually go down? Slight increase in new costs less what county will not charge Villagers for this ambulance service will be the new Village cost. Yet, I hear from District staff that Villagers cost will increase by not just pennies. So, I am still a little bit confused by the cost increase issues. Plus, how will the passage or failure to pass the new Fire District affect the cost issue.

[TrapX]

Don,

1. Regardless of what the actual amount of my new FD tax will be, will my county tax bill be reduced by that exact same amount (or more). "Yes" is what many expect. If "no" then how much (specific amounts) and why will that be different? I'm not looking for referrals to calculators or generalities. Will every taxpayer still pay the exact same amount (or less), if it should pass?

2. The fire chief and news articles indicate services will improve only if district is passed. Many people are saying better response times are worth extra costs, and use those higher costs as justification to passing the district. Yet others (including yourself) say district is just a different method of funding FD, and has nothing to do with how services are provided or response times. Which is true, and why is contradictory information coming from officials?

3. Are there going to be management and overhead services created that are new or duplicates of county services? Such as HR, purchasing, maintenance, construction, billing, payroll, legal, accounting, etc. Who pays for that? How much? Is that included in the new district tax? If those new things are needed, wouldn't that take away funds for actual fire/EMS services?

4. How much will the county charge for dispatching? Who pays for that? How much? Is that included in the new district tax?

5. Please discuss the new fire station planned to be built on land already purchased on Warm Springs. Who pays for that building and equipment? Costs? Is building already funded?

6. As an independent body, since the fire district be a smaller entity than the scale of the county, would that result in paying higher costs for supplies as a result of buying things separate from the quantity discounts gained with the county?

7. Will TV residents' county tax still include money allocated to pay for fire services delivered in other parts of the county but not in TV? If yes, exactly how much? If the rest of the county has to pay more for their fire services, how will that effect my tax bill?

8. There have been, and will be, meetings discussing this issue. Please arrange to release all video recordings of those meetings.

9. Please address the many comments referring to how district taxes can go up at will. What prevents that from happening? Is that information true in some part?

10. Will there be any obligation to lower district tax rates over time? Will vehicle purchase frequency be stretched? Many other fire departments replace vehicles at a significantly older age as a large cost savings.

11. How will existing assets be handled? Such as fire stations, vehicles, supplies, equipment?

12. How will co-mingled funds in any retirement or insurance accounts be handled?

13. What surplus of funds is in county reserves for future costs, how will those funds be divided?

14. Will any supervisor, or person, with any ties to TVFD be prevented from voting or controlling any taxes or assets?

15. If passed, but becomes evident that it will be unexpectedly very costly, or unmanageable, or just isn't working well, is there a way to dissolve?

In your answers, please be specific and with details, costs, responsibilities, and dates.

If your response contains words like "likely", "may", "depends", "could", "possibly", etc, please explain all factors that would be necessary for that to happen. Along with the likelihood of all those factors happening.

[Altavia]

TrapX, interesting list - I'm curious to know what you did for a living?

[teamC]

Thank you for doing all of this Don!
I am wondering about logistics.

#1- Do we have a 911 system that can assign/allocate & track firetruck needs for fires?

A fireman in NY and he said that the boroughs "loan/share" coverage if needed. It's crucial to know what type of trucks are where and what areas are left "uncovered" (or short staffed) and how fast you can get trucks and men on site. A centralized 911 service would do this.

#2-Will each station have the types of trucks needed?
7 Types of Fire Trucks and What They Do – FirefighterNOW

The majority of homes in the Villages use steel beams for construction which melt or cause cave ins faster.The excerpt below was taken from (What About Steel in Home Construction? - Fine Homebuilding)
Wood has a somewhat predictable rate of burn—lightweight steel frames seem
to fail all at once, and without warning. In wood-frame construction, “the
loads usually shift and form a lean-to type of collapse. When this steel structure failed, it
acted more like a beer can being pressed in from both ends in a pancake-type collapse.”
All of this makes response time critical.