Fire Rescue Brown Out in Miami Dade County
To cut down on overtime a fire rescue squad 11 fire trucks and emergency vehicles won't be used to respond to calls and crews will be reassigned. This will save about $2,000,000. It is unclear how many lives will be lost because of the expected increase in response time to about eight and 30 seconds.
Originally, the mayor, a retired fire chief from the City of Miami proposed a small increase in the property tax rate to cover increased costs in fire rescue, libraries, and animal services. Property values are increasing for many and this would be spending more money to support Miami Dade County. Until recently rates were stable, valuations fell off the table and folks paid less. Obviously the mayor miscalculated the response from the public and did an about face.
Hiring freezes, some significant layoffs in fire and libraries and a slowdown in the upgrades planned at Animal Services have become his new plan
Miami Dade County is not Detroit. I really don't want to sound snarky but for the absolute majority of folks contact with the fire department is either in the line at the grocery store where they are buying food for the station or seeing a truck parked near a restaurant at meal time.
Otherwise it is seeing the rescue squad responding to a car accident, slip and fall, or possibly a heart attack at home. You need them when you need them but probably don't worry about response time until after the fact. There are not many house fires in Miami and your insurance rates reflect that.
Libraries are useful, the Mayor probably uses Netflix and buys his books through Amazon or Barnes and Noble. After school the South Miami Library has lots of customers, I have a library card and I borrow books and have spent rime browsing magazines. Lots of folks use the computer's at the library to apply for jobs or lamentably unemployment benefits.
The dog and cat people in the county and around the country are probably more passionate and more numerous than people than people who might need the fire department rescue squad one day and may come out of the woodwork to protest efforts to scuttle plans for low cost spay an neutering, and increased efforts to become a no kill shelter. I turned down a chance for a promotion to Animal Services many years ago because the pet owners were a little emotional and ultimately being responsible for killing directly or indirectly a lot of lost or unwanted pets on a daily basis.
This may just be a political sandstorm, a union power play, or a reasonable adjustment in policy after hearing from the public. The economy down here still isn't great and maybe the mayor just got a little bit ahead of himself.
Originally, the mayor, a retired fire chief from the City of Miami proposed a small increase in the property tax rate to cover increased costs in fire rescue, libraries, and animal services. Property values are increasing for many and this would be spending more money to support Miami Dade County. Until recently rates were stable, valuations fell off the table and folks paid less. Obviously the mayor miscalculated the response from the public and did an about face.
Hiring freezes, some significant layoffs in fire and libraries and a slowdown in the upgrades planned at Animal Services have become his new plan
Miami Dade County is not Detroit. I really don't want to sound snarky but for the absolute majority of folks contact with the fire department is either in the line at the grocery store where they are buying food for the station or seeing a truck parked near a restaurant at meal time.
Otherwise it is seeing the rescue squad responding to a car accident, slip and fall, or possibly a heart attack at home. You need them when you need them but probably don't worry about response time until after the fact. There are not many house fires in Miami and your insurance rates reflect that.
Libraries are useful, the Mayor probably uses Netflix and buys his books through Amazon or Barnes and Noble. After school the South Miami Library has lots of customers, I have a library card and I borrow books and have spent rime browsing magazines. Lots of folks use the computer's at the library to apply for jobs or lamentably unemployment benefits.
The dog and cat people in the county and around the country are probably more passionate and more numerous than people than people who might need the fire department rescue squad one day and may come out of the woodwork to protest efforts to scuttle plans for low cost spay an neutering, and increased efforts to become a no kill shelter. I turned down a chance for a promotion to Animal Services many years ago because the pet owners were a little emotional and ultimately being responsible for killing directly or indirectly a lot of lost or unwanted pets on a daily basis.
This may just be a political sandstorm, a union power play, or a reasonable adjustment in policy after hearing from the public. The economy down here still isn't great and maybe the mayor just got a little bit ahead of himself.
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