A City of Alachua Fire Department

In response to the article, “Alachua and High Springs eye joint fire services,” in the July 22 edition the Alachua County Today, I would like to give my reasons for proposing that the City of Alachua look into starting our own fire department.

As stated in the article, the City of Alachua has been paying Alachua County over $669,000 for our fire service contract and I do not think that will change if we continue with the County.  I think the $475,000 amount was just to get us to buy into the County fire assessment plan.  It probably costs more than that. 

The City of Alachua owns the property and fire station that the County uses to supply us our contracted fire service.  As anyone can see, we wouldn’t have to start from scratch if we started our own fire department.   As Fire Chief Riggall of High Springs has said he estimates that it would cost around $250,000 for a fire engine and approximately $450,000 a year for nine full-time firefighters.  We could also consider using volunteers to help fight fires to lower the cost.  As can also be seen, the cost would be about the same as we are now paying the County for our fire service.  We might even be able to get a grant to help us pay for the fire engine.  We use the City of High Springs fire department for backup and could work with them to help each other fight fires.  We need to continue to look for ways to save the citizens money in these bad economic times.

I do not feel it is in the best interest of the City of Alachua to have to depend on the County to supply this fire service.  The County Commission, in most cases, is elected by the citizens of Gainesville.  A perfect example is that Alachua has its own police department.  If you have a problem or concern about our police department you can always go to your City Commissioners who were elected by the citizens of Alachua.  This is true home rule. 

It is my opinion that having our own fire department in the City of Alachua would better serve our citizens.

Gary Hardacre

Vice-Mayor, City of Alachua