Fort Myers Beach fire station opens as merger bill referendum looms
Study found taxes would rise in Iona-McGregor district under proposed merger
More than six years after the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District purchased the former Topps supermarket properties across from the old town hall to build a new home for the firefighters of Fort Myers Beach, and more than three years after Hurricane Ian delayed those plans, a new fire station built to withstand 200 mile per hour winds opened up on Estero Boulevard.
“This station exists because this community refused to give up,” Fort Myers Beach Chief Scott Wirth said during a well-attended, standing room only ceremony inside the new station, complete with a firehose replacing the traditional ribbon-cutting. Wirth said the station was based on a commitment from the community and perseverance through “partnerships at every level of government” to see through a rebuilding of a new station.
“It required vision, accountability and an unwavering belief that Fort Myers Beach would rebuild,” Wirth said.
Wirth thanked the firefighters of the department at the fire station ceremony for their dedication. “This is your house,” he said. “I know and trust you will fill it with teamwork, training, readiness and most of all heart. Every call for service will give these walls meaning. I am proud to be here with each of you,” Wirth said.
Wirth said the ceremony was more than the celebration of a new structure. “We celebrate recovery, service and shared responsibility for looking out for one another,” Wirth said.
Wirth also thanked the community for its support. “You are part of this station as well. This building belongs to the community,” he said. “Your trust, your support, and your resilience are woven into its foundation.”
Yet whether the Fort Myers Beach community will get to keep ownership of its own fire station, or share it with the Iona-McGregor fire district, will depend on whether Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a bill that would put a referendum up before voters this November to merge the two districts.
The bill was pushed forward and co-sponsored by State Rep. Adam Botana (R-Bonita Springs). The bill would eliminate the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District and merge it with the Iona-McGregor Fire Protection and Service District if voters approve a referendum this November.
A majority of voters in both fire districts would need to approve the merger. If a majority of voters in one fire district approve, but the majority of voters in the other district disapprove, the merger will fail.
The bill passed the State House in February by a vote of 113-2, and passed the State Senate 36-0. The lone local state representative to vote against the bill was Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R-Fort Myers). DeSantis still needs to sign the bill before it can go in front of voters.
Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District Commissioner Ron Fleming said he opposed the bill. He pointed to a feasibility study the fire district and Iona-McGregor fire district funded to study the impacts of a merger.
“The study came back and said there is no financial, nor operational advantage to a merger,” Fleming said. “It will increase the taxes for the people in Iona,” he said. “It just makes zero sense. It will be defeated.”
Fort Myers Beach Board of Fire Commissioners Chair John Bennet said the results of the study “proved unfavorable to proceed any further. Unfortunately, the house bill was advanced and it also cleared the senate; if the governor signs it there will be a referendum on the November ballot.”
Bennett said the board of fire commissioners opposed the bill that was introduced by Rep. Botana.
“The board approved sending a withdrawal letter to our (state legislative) delegation at our meeting January 28,” Bennett said. Bennett said the board requested a withdrawal of the bill. “The only positive with all of this is that the voters of both districts will have the final decision,” he said.
A feasibility study on merging the Fort Myers Beach and Iona-McGregor fire districts was released in December.
The J. Angle Group, which was hired by the fire district to conduct a feasibility study, found “no compelling reasons to merge the two districts into a single new independent fire district.”
The study also found that a merger would actually increase costs. The study found that the Iona-McGregor fire district taxpayers “would likely see increases in millage of up to 0.5 mills over the next five years while Fort Myers Beach taxpayers would likely experience similar millage rates.
“The merger study concluded that a merging of the two districts would not be beneficial and it would place an extreme financial burden on the Iona-McGregor Fire District,” Bennett said. “The beach community would lose our ambulance transport capability and revert to the Lee County EMS system. Combined, these changes would also necessitate a reduction of personnel, most likely our community’s fire fighters.”
Botana, who didn’t attend Thursday’s ceremony, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment. State Senator Jonathan Martin who did attend the ceremony, voted to approve the bill to put the merger up for referendum. Martin said the bill was passed as part of a larger group of bills under a consent agenda. “The voters will have their voice heard regardless,” Martin said. “I heard from enough people who were concerned. They wanted their voice heard.”
Martin said “some people thought there could be a cost savings.” Martin suggested the state’s property tax overhaul legislation that is scheduled to be taken up during special session “could negate” the impacts of the merger, or a non-merger.
Town of Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers said that he hadn’t yet read the merger bill. The council has not passed a resolution regarding the proposed merger bill as it had done previously in 2023 when there was a proposal by Botana to merge the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District with the Bonita Springs fire district.
Back in 2023, the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council voted to approve a resolution opposing the merger of the fire district with the Bonita Springs District that was proposed by Botana, and sent a letter to oppose the proposed merger. The merger was opposed by fire commissioners in both districts. At the time, the council said in its letter that merging the dire district would be a “devastating blow to the town and its residents.”
Botana’s legislative district includes Fort Myers Beach.
The plans for the newest station go back six years to when the district acquired the property on the former Topps lot at 2545 and 2555 Estero Boulevard for $3.99 million in January of 2020, next to the former Town Hall.
The new fire station at 2545 and 2555 Estero Boulevard, which is costing approximately $12 million to construct (after $435,000 in architecture fees and $148,000 for engineering), is bring covered in large part by $9 million in state funds that were granted to the department after Hurricane Ian. The station replaces the former station at Donora Boulevard that was destroyed by that hurricane. That property was sold in 2024.
Fleming was on the board when the district first acquired the properties. “It took longer to get the permits than to actually build the structure,” Fleming said. “It turned out very nice. It’s not going anywhere.”
Fleming said the building is “vital” to the community, after the Donora Boulevard station was destroyed. Fleming said the new location, which is closer to the downtown district, will provide the community more protection where much of the incidents the fire department responds to, occurs. Fleming said the state grant to build the station was critical after Hurricane Ian, after a nosedive in the district’s tax receipts. “We didn’t have the money,” he said. Now everything is paid for.
Wirth credited Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie and former Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis with ensuring the grant for the community to build the station after he received a phone call from them regarding the station after Hurricane Ian. Wirth said the state’s help was critical in moving the process ahead while the district works out reimbursement through FEMA, which he said is still continuing over the district’s Main Street project plans. “The state was instrumental in getting us where we are,” Wirth said.
Martin, who was elected to the State Senate after Hurricane Ian, said the state has poured in hundreds of millions of dollars into Southwest Florida since Hurricane Ian.
Bennett said the help of the state, the dedication of the fire department’s leaders and the support of the community made the station possible.
“Our residents and visitors are now safer. In a coastal community like ours, we know that timing is everything. This location ensures that our team of firefights and EMS specialists can provide rapid response times,” Bennett said.
The construction of the new fire station took about a year. Wright Construction Group oversaw the work.
“We finished about a month early,” Wright Construction Group President Fred Edman said. Edman said the plans actually started before Hurricane Ian and then got put back on the shelf. They then started collaborating after the hurricane to see if they could build a temporary facility, though that was ultimately put off due to FEMA requirements making that cost prohibitive. Edman said the project came in ahead of schedule and under budget. He credited the collaboration of Wirth with the design team and the construction company. “That only happens when everybody is working together,” Edman said. “We will be returning substantial savings to the fire district.”
The department also has a station at Lenell Road on the south side of Fort Myers Beach, and a station on San Carlos Boulevard off island.
The sale of the former fire station at Donora Boulevard and Estero Boulevard may not have fully benefited the department, if it weren’t for the acquiescence of the Zimmer family, which donated that land to the fire district in the 1950’s. The family agreed to let the district keep the majority of the profits from the sale even though the original deed directed that the one of the parcels be returned to the family in the event it was abandoned by the fire department.
At Thursday’s ceremony, Wirth thanked the Zimmer family.
Mary Zimmer, the granddaughter of Don and Ora Zimmer, who donated the land, attended the ceremony with her sister Mallory. Donora Boulevard is named after their grandparents. Don Zimmer, was the first chair of the board. Their great-grandfather Earl Howie was the first chief of the department, which was created in 1949. He lived across the street from the fire station, and also owned the former Red Coconut RV Park property.
“They would be so happy to see this. They would be very proud,” Mary Zimmer said. “Our grandparents and our great-grandfather were very invested in Fort Myers Beach.
The district still plans to sell a little less than an acre of property in the rear of their Estero Boulevard property. The district’s next project will be to construct a new administration building and training facility off Main Street on San Carlos Island. Once that is built, the district will sell its administration building on Voorhis St.
Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay, who attended Thursday’s ceremony, said he thinks the fire station opening was a “fantastic sign of us coming back and building back better.”
Fort Myers Beach Observer Nathan Mayberg can be reached at NMayberg@breezenewspapers.com