Comments on: Escambia To Hold Public Hearing On Fire Tax Increase

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 02:59:00 +0000

Eliminate the fire tax and privatize fire service.

By: barrineau

barrineau — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:06:22 +0000

This is one increase that I would not mind paying. Just last night my 82 year young father in law had a heart attack in my living room and molino fire and rescue were here in 4 minutes ….great job and thanks much .Because of these good people he is doing well. I’ll pay the 80 bucks with a smile on my face. Though I tend to agree it should be put to a vote, don’t take the power from the people.

By: William

William — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:53:24 +0000

“Get your facts srt8 ” wrote

>>>I guess there is some one sided stuff here at this paper. My comment was deleted. I guess thats why the People of North Escambia do not know the truth!

Nope. Your comment was *not* deleted. Read rule #5 at the bottom of every story — “Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator”.

By: Get your facts srt8

Get your facts srt8 — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:42:54 +0000

I guess there is some one sided stuff here at this paper. My comment was deleted. I guess thats why the People of North Escambia do not know the truth!

By: Get your facts srt8

Get your facts srt8 — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:35:49 +0000

Lets take a look at this for a moment. You, the citizens of Escambia county pay 75 dollars for fire protection. Look around you and see what the city of Pensacola is paying, Midway, Bagdad, Milton, Fort Walton Beach, Destin, and so on. No for some reason this is all about the Ensley Fire house. NO. Its about the rising cost of fuel, maintenance, equipment, useless refurbs of trucks that was not needed, energy costs, water, and so on. That what the increase is for. I am tired of you northern Escambia people complaining about this and you dont even know what you are talking about. Do you know where most of your funding comes from? Thats right southern Escambia County. Maybe the southern people are tire of a majority of their money going to the end.

And Firefighter, there are no where near 400 volunteers, sorry paid on call, in the Escambia County system. And the volunteers DO NOT HAVE THE SAME TRAINING. Some do but very few. So dont go there. Get your facts straight.
It is sad that it takes this so called paper, tabloid, toilet paper to get thing going again to create news.
And Benthere, your are dead wrong. The Escambia County Fire Service is not mandating the certifications IT IS THE STATE OF FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!! And the turn over in the paid on call personell is so great that there is no experience in the ranks any more. GET YOU FACTS STR8!!!!!!!!!!
Lastly

By: Facts

Facts — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:30:02 +0000

For the individuals who think that it necessary to make this increase in fire tax an issue between career and volunteer. The Dictionary is very clear about it: VOLUNTEER: –noun
1.
a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking who performs a service willingly and without pay.

Hmmmmmmmm. Sounds like there should not be any compensation for volunteers, which means that our volunteers (used to be one myself and never accepted the first penny of compensation because I wanted to serve my community for free) are really what the fire service considers to be Paid On Call firemen and women. Nothing wrong with that, just don’t go blaming it on the career firemen who spend significantly more time away from their families for additional training and work for a very meager paycheck.

This fire tax will increase the quality of training, equipment, and ultimately the service for EVERYBODY in the county, especially the northend. When is this going to get through your thick skull people?????

By: All41

All41 — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:44:17 +0000

I am happy to pay $5.00 more a year. Now if I can get Allstate Ins. To agree to such a low increase. Our firefighters are well worth it and a lot more.

By: Al.Firewoman

Al.Firewoman — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:40:04 +0000

Sandra, i personally take offense to what u said. I have been a volunteer ff for 20 years. The only difference between paid and volunteer is that i dont stay at station 24/7. I am a emt i have taken 160 hour ff,hazmat training,and so much more hours of training that i wont post because it would take up page. I do it because i want to help people. To make a ignorant remark like u did just shows me that u know nothing about the fire service. As far as the tax, from someone who used to be in a fl. Dept, i wish the depts in escambia county al. Could count on a tax. We could use it for better equipment and training.

By: My two cents

My two cents — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:27:37 +0000

I don’t understand why they try to push out the Vol Firefighters that are doing this for FREE, Yes FREE, that little bit of money they give a month won’ot even pay for the gas the guys/girls use in their POV. Most of the volunteers have been with the Dept for years and have a LOT of hands on training and know a whole lot more than some of the new paid firemen that may be running their first few calls after their schooling are shaken in their boots scared to death they are going to mess up or do something wrong. We all went through it so please don’t say you would rather have a paid FF on your call if you ever needed one, you could get a paid FF on his first call!! You can take all kinds of classes and have all kinds of training untill you get out into the real world and run calls and get some real experience. I would rather have a vol that had been out in the real world.

They could save a lot of money by using more volunteers instead of trying to run the volunteers out of the departments.

Yes volunteers train and are Brave and put their lives on the line and are Proud of what they do and most of us don’t do it for the recognition, its the enjoyment of saving a life and helping our neighbors and even strangers in their time of need.

So to call volunteers hillbillys that don’t know what they are doing but driving a big red truck and putting the wet stuff on the hot stuff is just HOG-WASH or just plain BULL

By: Walnut Hill Resident

Walnut Hill Resident — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:44:08 +0000

I am not nor have I ever been a firefighter so let me get that out of the way first and foremost. I live in the Walnut Hill area and have for the last 25 years. I have seen the changes in the way the volunteer firefighters have to train and I can tell you that I personally would rather have our team of volunteers come to my aid than any of the paid firefighters I have seen in this area including Ensley.
It is true that these brave men and women do receive a small amout of money each month if they attend the training meeting and make at least half the calls that go out for the month. Why shou;dn’t they get something for their time and service to our community. I am not going to fuss about $5.00 a year for the fire tax if it helps to save one life of a child or any one else. I do fuss about the way the county spends the money and then expects the taxpayers to pay to cover their butts after they over spend. Goverment of any kind over spends in this country more than any other I have ever seen. Of course we elect these people to govern all of us. So if you think that we need a change vote the suckers out. Not just in the north end but all over the county.
I have noticed that Escambia County Florida nevers tries to get any type of new businesses to locate in this area to create more jobs and more tax dollars for the county. They can spend all kind of money to sell people on coming to the beachbut, that only last a few months. Look at the port of Mobile then look at ours. Look at all the companies that Mobile and Bladwin county are getting to build plants and create jobs for people. What is wrong with our county and why can’t we get more than a beach ball to play with?