Myriad Sugarloaf fire house issues prompt county search for new station

 

Firefighters, medics looking at raises

 

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

 

A crumbling building vulnerable to flooding, stalemated negotiations over the land it’s on, and sagging service ratings have all conspired to send the county looking for another location to build a new-and-improved Sugarloaf fire station.

 

 

At the same time the county has reached a tentative agreement with its paid firefighters that would see them receive at least a 2 percent raise, to be voted on at the Board of County Commissioners April 15 meeting.

 

 

The aging Sugarloaf station is located at Mile Marker 17 and fails on a number of structural levels. It’s dark, confined, non-compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and not nearly high enough off the ground to survive a major hurricane strike in the area.

 

 

In addition, the station’s volunteer force has been supplemented for two years by a contingent of two paid professionals who must vacate their sleeping quarters during the Sunday services a local church holds there.

 

 

Then there’s the land issue.

 

 

The station sits on a parcel owned by the volunteers themselves, who lease a corner to a Keys cell tower company. Thus, the firefighters are reluctant to deed the land over to the county, as has been requested, offering only ownership of the beat-up building instead.

 

 

The situation has sent county officials scrambling to find a substitute location where they can start from scratch with a new structure, but Monroe County Fire Chief Jim Callahan is still hoping a deal can be reached to maintain the station at its present site.

“The location it’s at is a very good one,” Callahan said Monday. “But the fact is that the building is insufficient for our needs for a number of reasons, including a number of structural concerns, which engineers tell us aren’t worth trying to repair. And the county isn’t going to want to make the kind of investment that a new building requires without owning the land that it’s on. I’m still optimistic that we can work out a deal with the volunteers, but at the end of the day the county has to move forward with a new building and will move on to another location to build it if necessary.”

 

 

County Administrator Roman Gastesi was sanguine about the negotiations.

“Honestly, I’m frustrated that we’ve being held hostage by a couple of guys on this,” he said. “It’s not a department thing, just a couple of people being hard-headed, and not willing to negotiate in the best interest of the community. It’s ridiculous.”

 

 

Raises in offing

 

 

In other, fire-related news, the county has come to a tentative, three-year collective bargaining agreement with its firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and other related personnel, which basically brings them up to speed with other county workers who have been awarded 2 percent increases since the beginning of negotiations this year.

 

 

Extra incentive pay of between 2 and 7 percent will also be handed out to airport firefighters, Trauma Star flight medics, fire pump truck drivers and paramedic trainers to those workers.

 

 

Current salaries, excluding benefits and overtime for firefighter/emergency medical technicians (EMTs) start at $37,605. Paramedics have more medical training than EMTs and pull in an extra 10 percent. Firefighter lieutenants currently make between $47,894 and $67,168, with captains taking home between $59,654 and $79,572, and battalion chiefs raking in $71,557 to $91,426. Flight nurses are paid $20 per hour.

“We’ve been in negotiations for a long time with the union and we’ve both agreed that what’s being proposed is a good contract for both sides,” Fire Chief Callahan said. “It’s been several years since the firefighters have had a raise. And workers who are doing over and above are getting extra money for their extra hours of service to the community. “

 

 

County Administrator Gastesi agreed.

 

 

“These are well-deserved raises,” he said. “It’s time to move on with a new union contract, where the guiding principal is ‘me too.’ They’re going to get what all of our other employees have received, and moving forward, they’ll continue to be treated equally.”

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