On Tuesday the Southwest Florida State Delegation voted 7-1 to move the merger of the Fort Myers Beach and Iona Fire Departments to that next step. The bill will now go before several House and Senate committees in Tallahassee, which is the normal process for every bill.
If the bill makes it through the various committees, and is approved by the House and Senate, it would go to the Governor’s desk. If the Governor signs the bill, the proposed merger would be put on the 2026 ballot for the voters to decide. Only Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District voters and Ioana-McGregor voters would vote.
Representative Jenna Persons-Mulicka voted against the merger. She said she’s concerned about response times. “While I understand the eagerness to get this through, I can’t support the bill with no evidence behind it.”
A joint study between the two departments, which cost taxpayers from both districts $80,000, was supposed to be completed last month and ready for the delegation meeting this week. That study is not done yet. Representative Adam Botana who has been pushing the merger, to try to save the taxpayers money, said, “The study was supposed to be done so moving this forward is pretty much to keep everyone in line.”
State Senator Jonathan Martin said, “I’ll be supportive of this bill if it shows it will increase service and increase response time. Today I’m a yes but the devil will be in the details.”
Botana believes there are too many fire districts across the state of Florida and consolidating some of them will save taxpayers money. Botana’s attempt to merge districts calls for completely dissolving the Fort Myers Beach Fire District. Botana wants to create two new districts from three existing districts and that involves Bonita Springs, Fort Myers Beach and Iona-McGregor. The Matanzas Pass Bridge would split the two new districts.
One district would be created from the Matanzas Pass Bridge east to Iona and become the Iona-McGregor Fire District. Currently, the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District extends over the bridge on San Carlos Boulevard. The other new district would cover everything from the Matanzas Pass Bridge south toward Bonita and become the Bonita Beach Fire District.