Lealman plans Park Street rescue station

The move is good for service, but it also has political ramifications involving the city of Seminole.

By ANNE LINDBERG

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 10, 2000

LEALMAN -- Saying it will mean quicker emergency service and save county taxpayers money, the Lealman Fire Board unanimously agreed Monday to open a satellite station on Park Street.

The satellite station may also trump a rumored move by the city of Seminole to build a fire station in the Bay Pines area.

The station, slated for the east side of Park just south of 46th Avenue N, will have a two-paramedic rescue vehicle -- not a fire truck -- that will answer medical emergencies. Fire calls will still be handled by the current station, Lealman 19.

The Lealman district plans to open the emergency station as soon as possible after leases are signed and radios and computers are installed.

"Coverage is going to be the first thing," Lealman fire Chief Gary Wolff said. "I wanted to do this when I first got here."

Coverage and quicker response times have long been needed in that area, Wolff said. Not only have county officials wanted to open a station there, but the Insurance Services Organization marked down the district because of the lack in that area.

The ISO rates fire service in areas to help determine the cost of insurance. Lealman's rating dropped during the last rating because there was no station in that area of the district, Wolff said.

While the move is good for service, it also has political ramifications.

The city of Seminole has moved to annex much of the commercial area along Park Street to Tyrone Boulevard.

That area is in the Lealman Fire District and will continue to receive Lealman service if annexed into Seminole. But the property owners there would be paying fire taxes to Seminole rather than Lealman, Wolff said.

That could be especially devastating to property owners in the Lealman district, which just gained the Legislature's approval to become an independent taxing district. All that's left is for the governor to sign the bill.

Assuming that the bill is signed, as expected, the Lealman district will no longer rely on the county for its $4.4-million annual budget. Instead, taxpayers in the fire district will have to foot the bill directly.

Should Lealman have to provide fire service to people who are paying Seminole for their fire protection, other property owners in the Lealman district would have to pay more money to make up the difference.

That has made the Lealman Fire Board wary of the proposed annexation. And when Wolff reported to board members Monday night that he understood that Seminole's plan to build a fire station to service Bay Pines was a "go," they decided to act to help protect their taxpayers by maintaining Lealman's presence in that area. Even if Seminole opened the station, Lealman still would have to answer calls first.

"It needs to be done yesterday," board member Michael Brophy said of opening a satellite station.

The other four board members present agreed and unanimously supported Brophy. Board member Sharon McManus was not at the meeting.

Board president Linda Campbell said she had toured the likely site for the station and estimated that the monthly rent would be $500. That, she said, was well within the Lealman budget.

District Chief Richard Graham, the Lealman department's second in command, said the satellite station would save Pinellas taxpayers millions of dollars when compared with the cost of Seminole's building a completely new station.

Graham estimated that the minimum cost of building a station would be $500,000. Furnishing it with a truck and other equipment would cost about $1-million, he said. Staffing it would be another $500,000 a year.

With the Lealman plan, the cost is basically the monthly rental on the property, he said. The satellite station will be staffed with paramedics already employed by the department and supplied with a rescue truck and equipment the Lealman district already owns.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.