Two forces, a common enemy -- and a turf war

Seminole wants to build a new fire station to serve the Redingtons, taking over for Indian Rocks. Indian Rocks says, "Not in my back yard."

By WILMA NORTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2000

SEMINOLE -- Seminole and the Indian Rocks Fire District have been playing an extended board game of political strategy that shows no signs of a quick end.

Seminole wants to build a fire station in Indian Shores to serve the Redington Beach communities. Indian Shores is in the Indian Rocks Fire District, which doesn't want any squatters in its territory.

Both sides have threatened legal action and have come up with alternate game plans in the six months since the dispute began.

Seminole is considering moving the proposed station a tenth of a mile, to the east side of the Park Boulevard bridge, out of the Indian Rocks district.

The district is scouting locations for a new station of its own in Indian Shores, one that would be within sight of Seminole's planned station.

Indian Rocks also has proposed building one large fire station at the county boat ramp, where Seminole plans its station, and leasing part of it to Seminole. But the county, which owns the land, says the site is too small for a bigger station.

Things are so up in the air that Seminole City Manager Frank Edmunds left the expenses and revenue from the Redingtons contract out of next year's preliminary fire and emergency services budget, which was submitted to the county last week. He will add them, he said, when he is sure the deal is going through.

Edmunds said later that he feels certain the problems can be worked out, but he acknowledged that he never expected the quagmire the contract has created.

He made his proposal to the Redingtons, Edmunds said, as a way to save those towns money on fire service and to earn his city extra revenue. "I simply saw it as good public policy," he said.

Seminole and Madeira Beach signed a contract six months ago agreeing to provide fire services to the Redingtons beginning Oct. 1, taking over for the Indian Rocks district. The Redingtons went with Seminole and Madeira Beach after failing to reach a long-term agreement with the Indian Rocks district after several months of negotiations.

Part of the contract calls for Seminole to spend up to $500,000 on a new fire station at the county boat ramp park.

Indian Rocks officials say they don't want Seminole within their district's boundaries.

Because the county's 911 center sends the closest available unit to a fire or emergency, Seminole would end up making most of the runs to Indian Shores from the new station. It wouldn't cost the Indian Rocks district anything, and Seminole would get no more money from the county for those runs.

But Indian Rocks Fire District officials argue that Indian Rocks' rights would be usurped if that happened. Seminole disagrees.

Because of the legal wrangling, Seminole hasn't started building the station on Gulf Boulevard and will have to find temporary quarters for its fire engine and crew starting Oct. 1, when the contract begins.

The county has offered the old tollbooth area on the east side of the bridge, a tenth of a mile from the boat launch site. Seminole has done a survey of the site and is trying to figure out if a station could be built there.

Edmunds said the city already has discovered one problem. Most of the site is in the Park Boulevard right of way. The county would have to vacate the easement before Seminole could build there.

Indian Rocks fire's attorney recently proposed another solution. He suggested that Indian Rocks be allowed to build a station at the boat launch site. Indian Rocks and its crews would serve Indian Shores from there, and it would lease space to Seminole so that Seminole could serve the Redingtons and the southern part of the Seminole mainlands area from it, too.

County Administrator Fred Marquis rejected the idea in a March letter to the board's attorney, however, saying the site is not big enough for a large station.

Meanwhile, the Indian Rocks Fire District has been looking for sites in Indian Shores for a new station of its own.

Edmunds said he questions that logic.

"It is difficult to understand why they would waste money in purchasing property at taxpayers' expense when the taxpayers could benefit from improved service free" from the proposed Seminole station, Edmunds said.

Edmunds said he is getting tired of the wrangling and may go to court after all.

The City Council gave Edmunds and City Attorney John Elias the authority to go to court and ask a judge to settle the dispute with Indian Rocks. Edmunds has held off on that option so far, but he may not much longer.

"I'm inclined to direct the city attorney to proceed with that and resolve the issue once and for all," Edmunds said last week.

For its part, Indian Rocks isn't trying to get in Seminole's way, Chief Jim Terry said. "Our intent has never been to interfere with their contract with the Redingtons."

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