Beach Fire hopes to add water vessel in future
The Fort Myers Beach Board of Fire Commissioners decided to hold off on an opportunity to apply for a federal grant to purchase a fire fighting and rescue vessel at its meeting last week. A local grant may be sought in its place.
Beach Fire officials presented its board two options for acquiring what is called a “key component that is missing ion the life saving resources” through grants. After Beach Fire conducted a “needs assessment” (the Beach is the only waterfront District in Lee County without a boat) and a “risk evaluation,” the Fire Board looked at both options.
The request for the opportunity to apply for a FEMA grant to help purchase a boat would have come within the 2014 Port Security Grant Program -a grant that had a deadline four days after board proposal and a hefty price tag due to government-mandated, specialization requirements. The total cost of that water vessel project via the federal grant would have been $750,000 and, with the basis of the grant being a 75/25 split, it meant Beach Fire would have had to spend $187,500 if the grant was approved. Four of the five Beach Fire commissioners voted that grant down.
Beach Fire officials will now focus on a recommended Navigation Improvement Fund grant dispersed by Lee County and offered by the West Coast Inland Navigational District. This grant calls for a 50/50 split that covers operating expenses.
“The port security grant called for a specific type of boat. It had to be equipped with a CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) detection and protection,” said Beach Fire Chief Darren White. “So, being that it had such a high price tag and it had to be a specialized boat, (the Fire Board) felt that maybe we should go to the local level with the 50/50 grant and get the boat that we need.”
Rejected approval of the federal grant would have also placed Beach Fire on “the bad list” for five years, meaning no applications for such a grant at the federal level could be sought during that time period.
Beach Fire Commission Chairman David Brower was the only board member that approved the federal grant.
“Personally, since all the paperwork was done, I would have gone ahead with it, because the District would have spent about the same amount of money,” he said. “The boat under the federal grant is probably much more of a boat that the District needs. However, almost $175,000 of the grant was for training. That training part never goes to waste.”
The local grant is less restrictive.
“Any type of marine resource that we want to procure, they will give us 50 percent of whatever the cost is,” said White. “We will now re-evaluate since we have clear direction.”
White did agree that roughly $200,000 will still be needed to secure a boat with a local grant.
“We wanted to get the board in the mind set that either way, whatever route we went, there is still that $200,000 figure that the district would have to come up with,” he said.
Future budget-oriented workshops will have discussions where the funds would come from, either reserves or budgeting for future needs of a water vessel.
“We asked the board that even if we can’t commit with the roughly $200,000 today, could we put something in the budget to build towards that someday in the future,” said White. “The answer was ‘yes’.”
“Management’s goal is to put something in the budget about the purchase of some type of boat,” added Brower. “I expect to see some sort of line in the budget that we will examine at our next workshop on June 3.”
The Fire Board will discuss the feasibility of a water vessel at that point. The need is there, says White. Beach Fire is dependent upon such fire departments as Bonita, Cape Coral, Iona McGregor, Estero and North Naples when it comes to water-related rescues.
“The demographics of the Beach show it is the second largest seaport in the west coast of Florida,” White said. “There are 49,000 registered boaters in Lee County. Based on call volume, on average from 2008 to 2011, 30 percent of the boating incidents were within the waters around Fort Myers Beach.”
The mission of the U.S. Coast Guard Fort Myers Beach deals with domestic security, not fire or medical services.
“As far as rescue goes, they have strict guidelines since they are not a first responder type of agency,” said White. “There has been occasions where they dispatched us and (our personnel) jump on their boat with them.”
Beach Fire does have a guaranteed slip at Diversified Yacht Services at the foot of Matanzas Pass Bridge. White said every marina on the Beach has offered services as well.
For now, Beach Fire needs to acquire a boat before icing down docking privileges.
“We are going to go back to the board with the true figure that we need,” said White. “During the course of the budgeting process that we have already started, we are going to make a decision once we get the hard numbers down.”