Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Future of fire district cloudy

Annexation will cripple the Lealman district, a task force agrees.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published September 9, 2007

St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park are in agreement: The Lealman Fire District should be dissolved.

The only question those cities have is when it should happen. Pinellas Park says it could happen as soon as Oct. 1, 2013, but no later than Oct. 1, 2018. St. Petersburg has not suggested a time period.

Officials from those cities say they are being realistic. The Lealman Fire District can't make it financially if cities are allowed to annex property out of the district's tax base.

"There's a point as you've annexed a certain amount of area that it makes no sense for the area to be served by an independent fire district," St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker said. "I don't know what that point is, but at some point, you will have a district that is solely providing fire services to areas in a city."

Baker was speaking during a meeting of a task force designed to suggest a solution to the annexation problems that have plagued mid Pinellas County during the past few years.

The Lealman district has complained that annexations have eroded its tax base while the district must maintain a certain level of service, much of which serves the cities surrounding it. Voting members of the task force are St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park, the Lealman Fire Commission and Pinellas County. Kenneth City and Seminole are also members but have no vote.

Pinellas Park City Attorney Jim Denhardt suggested a nine-point plan that he said would provide a "long-term permanent solution" and eventually lower costs to Lealman taxpayers.

The highlight of Pinellas Park's proposal would be to sunset the Lealman Fire District by Oct. 1, 2018. When that happens, Pinellas Park would take over fire service in the eastern portion of Lealman. St. Petersburg would then serve the western part of the district.

The task force adjourned to give Lealman representatives time to study Pinellas Park's proposal and make a counteroffer.

The task force will meet again at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at Park Station, 5851 Park Blvd. Public comment will be allowed at the end of the meeting.

While relations among Lealman, Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg are still touchy, the opposite is true when it comes to Seminole.

That city and Lealman are very close to an agreement, Seminole City Manager Frank Edmunds said.

Edmunds said Seminole would likely agree to pay Lealman a reasonable amount for acting as the first responder fire service to parts of the city if the reimbursement formula could be well defined. Seminole also wants Lealman to agree not to contract to provide service to anyone in Seminole's fire district. Lealman recently underbid Seminole for the contract at Bay Pines VA Medical Center.

"There appears to be a foundation for an agreement that would be satisfactory to both parities," Edmunds said. "If that is the case, we should move forward with an interlocal (agreement)."

[Last modified September 8, 2007, 22:41:10]