Editorials

SH Fire Board Not Done Yet

Hernando Today
Published: March 1, 2009

The issue: Spring Hill Fire Rescue board votes to transfer emergency dispatching to county. Our opinion: Fire commissioners deserve praise for long overdue decision.

While it should have been done long ago, Spring Hill Fire Rescue commissioners, nonetheless, deserve praise for finally turning over the organization's emergency dispatching services to the county.

Like a decayed tooth, it had to be pulled.

Spring Hill property taxpayers should be happy because the move will reduce the unnecessary expense of running a redundant service that they already pay for through their county property taxes.

Those Spring Hill residents who actually have to call 911 for a fire or medical emergency should also be relieved. Soon, when they call 911, their call will go directly to the agency responsible for sending the fire trucks and ambulances. Currently, calls have to be transferred from the county's emergency operations center to SHFR dispatch, losing valuable seconds in an emergency as well as an increased possibility of dropping the call.

Nobody wants to dial 911 twice in an emergency. Sometimes they can't, and that could pose a life-threatening situation.

Still, we're concerned.

Seven full-time dispatching positions will be retained by the SHFR taxing district. Two part-time jobs will be eliminated. The seven will be trained in new positions - emergency response or administration.

In these tough economic times, government entities need to ensure that every penny of taxpayers' dollars is spent wisely. We're glad to see that at least three of the five SHFR commissioners realized that double-dispatching was a waste of the public's money.