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The disputed station will be built on Park Boulevard's south side. Now the Indian Rocks Fire District questions the economics of the new fire contract.
By WILMA NORTON
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 5, 2000
SEMINOLE -- A tenth-of-a-mile move by Seminole should put to rest a months-long donnybrook with the Indian Rocks Fire District.
Seminole now plans to build its new fire station on the east side of the Park Boulevard bridge. From the station, Seminole will provide fire service to the three Redington communities in partnership with Madeira Beach.
Seminole's acrimonious spat with the Indian Rocks district started last fall when Seminole and Madeira Beach entered into a contract with the Redingtons for fire service, beginning Oct. 1. The Indian Rocks district has been providing the service and had hoped to do so permanently.
The Redingtons, saying they had tried for months to reach an accord with the Indian Rocks district, decided to look elsewhere.
Part of the Seminole-Redingtons deal included a new fire station on the site of the county boat ramp where Park Boulevard meets Gulf Boulevard.
That land lies within the Indian Rocks Fire District, and the district's board said it would fight to keep Seminole from building a station inside its boundaries, setting aside up to $25,000 for legal fees.
Seminole, in return, said it might sue to get the station built.
Aside from a lot of arguing, not much progress has been made in settling the dispute.
Throughout the fracas, Indian Rocks officials have said they had no legal reason to contest the Seminole-Redingtons deal if the station moved out of Indian Rocks territory.
Seminole now plans to make that move.
To build at the county boat ramp site west of the Intracoastal Waterway, Seminole needed a zoning and land use change from Indian Shores, something that town's zoning board has rejected.
That was the final push Seminole needed to move east. The Redington communities have agreed to allow the move.
The station, which Seminole plans to spend about $500,000 to build, now will be constructed on the site of the former county toll office on the south side of Park Boulevard, just east of the bridge. The County Commission is expected to lease the property to Seminole July 11.
Representatives of the Indian Rocks district appeared before the County Commission last week, raising other objections to the Seminole-Redingtons deal. They said they weren't sure the contract made good economic sense.
County Administrator Fred Marquis, however, told them that the commission doesn't need to get involved in whatever political acrimony remains between the fire district, Seminole and the Redington communities.
"This board is in the role of leasing a piece of property," Marquis said. "I don't think this is the forum or the board has any say-so" in the dispute.
Commissioners did, however, urge the fire district and Seminole to have one more meeting to try to work out their differences.
Until the new station is built, Seminole will respond to fires on the beaches from its Station 31, near Seminole High.
The Indian Rocks district, which recently changed its name to the Pinellas Suncoast Fire & Rescue District, will continue to provide emergency medical services to the Redington communities for eight more years, until its contract expires.