NOFD: The next chapter
January 19th, 2009, 7:22 am · 2 Comments · posted by kylew
WAAZ-WJSB’s Cal Zethmayr were on the same page following the latest North Okaloosa Fire District meeting this past Thursday:
An entire book could be written about the department’s funding saga over the past year or so.
We’ve written plenty of articles about the situation and could write plenty more.
Here’s some related stories we haven’t done yet, but might:
• Why is the NOFD in this situation in the first place (sidebar: Crestview also accepted SAFER grants, the grants the NOFD accepted, a few years ago; will Crestview find itself in a similar financiall situation in a few years)?
• How does the NOFD’s ISO rating compare to the ISO rating of volunteer departments around the area (sidebar: For that matter, is it a fair comparison, based on the NOFD’s district shape and size)
• Should there be one north county fire department? (sidebar: what would the volunteer departments think about this idea? What would the county think?)
• What will be the final endgame if the referendum does not pass, and when will that scenario happen?
Do any of these topics in particular interest you? Do you have a better idea for a story? Post your ideas below, or e-mail me at kylew@crestviewbulletin.com
I like: Why is the NOFD in this situation in the first place (sidebar: Crestview also accepted SAFER grants, the grants the NOFD accepted, a few years ago; will Crestview find itself in a similar financiall situation in a few years)?
Should there be one north county fire department? Well it appears that that is not working too well, a possible solution is to break up the NOFD Empire into smaller volunteer stations with a paid firefighter or two at each station that would work together when needed but be governed separately. A better idea yet would be to give up some of the area to the other volunteer stations in the area, that would reduce manpower needed by NOFD and also prevent future lawsuits over annexed properties that NOFD has taken form the other departments in the past that they claim they can not properly protect now.