Public comment on fire rescue and growth

3:54Here. Now is the time for public comment. Oh, thank you. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any current or first future agenda item coming before the board and on other business under the board's purview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First, we will take public comment from those who are here in person. Then we will take public comment from those who have pre-registered for a WebEx link and are currently on queue. We request that when you address the

4:24board, comments are not directed personally against a commissioner or team member, but rather directed at the issues. This provides mutual respect between board members and the public. After stating your name and address for the clerk, a three-minute timer will be activated. After two minutes, a single beep will indicate you have one minute left. When your time is up, two beeps will sound and you should close your comments. WebEx participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. Madam

4:55Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?

4:58We do. Uh two individuals signed up for public comment. We have Sabrina Kobler and Nancy Hazelwood. Yeah, if uh Ms. Kobler could um come up to the podium. Thank you. And when you come to the podium state your name and address for the record, please.

5:15Can you hear me okay? Yes. Okay. My name is Sabrina Kobler and my address is Confidential in Pasco County. Okay, you may proceed. Okay. Hi, my name is Sabrina Kobler. I am a newly appointed secretary representing the local 4420. I'm also a captain firefighter here at Pasco County Fire Rescue and a resident of Pasco County. I'm here today to discuss the extreme deficit of stations. I know this isn't new information. After all, a couple years ago the citizens approved

5:45a $147 million bond for the county, $70 million of which was to go to new stations. Five new builds were supposed to be complete from that bond and four new rebuilds along with a training center that we are in dire need for due to a massive overgrowth. These stations have been pushed back month after month. Mm. Because the county either cannot pay for it or are not able to pay for it due to what they are called

6:15operating funds.

6:20We only build one new station at a time. which has become a problem as of to get because we are growing rapidly. The stations that we are building are taking an excessive amount of time longer than anticipated. Reportedly, the stations currently under construction are delayed, supposedly for building material availability. Now I'm not a contractor, I'm a firefighter, so that may be the case, but it is a little alarming when buildings all over the county are being completed. Just for example, there's a house down the road from me. They

6:50applied for a permit six months after station nine, and they have both their roof completed and windows installed. Our response phones are large. We are not able to navigate heavy traffic and poor traffic conditions with the current infrastructure easily and quickly. The other day, I was on a call in holiday, we waited on an ambulance from Station 37 in Atlanta Lakes. If you Google that distance, it is approximately 17 miles and takes

7:20as much as 35 minutes in heavy traffic.

7:26Neighborhoods are being completed. At a faster rate. then stations are being completed. This is gonna cause a problem, obviously. We need stations and we need them quicker than once every eighteen months. New stations will help alleviate the response times that we've continually addressed. New stations will continue to alleviate crew burnout, which is becoming an issue. And new stations will um help with our unit utilization, which is something we've also discussed.

7:57I'm also not sure why developers are not required to build a new station for us when they're bringing in massive amounts of homes and new population. Why we don't require that is beyond me. Most recently, thirty-four hundred new homes are coming to Newport Ritchie approved by this board. An additional two hundred and sixty-seven homes are going to be input um in built in um Beacon Woods area. And that's just the two very

8:27mild examples. Multiple multifamily home developments are being approved throughout the county, which is going to also increase our population. I'm almost finished. Families and children will be moving into these homes. We do not want the headline that a two year old who is not able to breathe Had to wait eighteen minutes. I have held countless children. That are lifeless. I don't want that on my conscience and neither do our guys. Don't make our firefighters live

8:57with that. Don't make our citizens regret moving here. You are obligated to provide the resources for public safety. And that's what we were requesting that you do. Just help us. To us, this is real life. It's not a news story.

9:15Thank you. No you're not allowed to laugh here, sorry. Uh no, I just wanna know why the timer isn't working.

9:22Yeah, I saw that.

9:24Okay. All right.

9:25Thank you.

9:28Mm-hmm.

9:32You guys can't clap in here. It's the balls.

9:35Nancy Hayswood, [address removed]. To follow up what she's saying, we do need more funds for 'em. We need to help them and the police all we can. We've been telling you for years growth doesn't pay for itself. Well, it's time to pony up and hopefully you won't take it from budgets that are already there. Tax the people. Anyways, that's not what I really wanted to talk about today. Honorable commissioners and Madam Chair, I want to talk about something that

10:06seems to be happening at the cities and the counties. The people that are doing applications for new developments seem to be misrepresenting or downright lying. And it's it's come to the attention. Yeah. at the R V thing that went through not too long ago, they misrepresented the count for cars um happening should have been counted on Saturdays in the middle of the day instead

10:36of it was done all week at weekdays in the middle of the day. And just over at Dade City they somebody said well Sisson said, you know, this has not been approved by the DEO. This the applicant got up there and says, yes it is. Nurse Sisson got up and said it wasn't. And again it came up and yes, it's been approved. So they approved the whole plan. Y'all are being misrepresented. What is going on in the application and lying to about it? I was wondering if

11:06something could be done. Maybe it's a chance to put a stiff fine on it and money would come into the county. Or maybe they need to just go back and start again. But this isn't good for the county and it's not good for your citizens and thank you very much for listening.

11:24Thank you. Um is there anyone else here in the room that wishes to address the County Commission?

11:31Do we have anyone online? No one is on WebEx.

11:35So I have Ramon Blanco.

11:37No one is on Web Except uh previously signed up, I guess, is the He's your employee.