On Tuesday the Southwest Florida State Delegation voted 7-1 to move the merger of the Fort Myers Beach and Iona Fire Departments to the 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 inmprove service and improve 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.
FMB residents are so misinformed. You only have 1 (rescue 33) ambulance on the island as it it…the majority of the north calls are run by…you guessed it…Lee county EMS. The beach can’t even get enough applicants to fill their positions as it stands. They have no battalion chiefs and only enough apparatus in service to run 1/4 of a one alarm fire. Dissolve them and let real fire departments step in and take control before someone gets hurt.
As a former resident of Fort Myers Beach, I implore you all to vote to continue to let FMB have it’s very own on-island fire station. The fire department exists to save lives and property. Why put that in jeopardy?
FMB Fire has been in decline for years. Let Bonita and Iona take it over, they already run the island as it is. The fact that FMB doesn’t even have battalion Chiefs and expect Iona and Bonita to run their fires is ridiculous, dissolve them already and let real Fire Departments take over!
If i have to vote it’s a definite NO. I see and hear how many times Iona McGregor is called into service. It’s ridiculous to think they can work with the Beach AND Bonita and save money. Show me the report.
Countless studies have been done on this subject and always show no beneficial savings. Beach residents would immediately lose their ambulance service. It would be provided by Lee County EMS. All revenue that is collected from ambulance services would go to the county and the district would lose that revenue. This a losing proposition for the beach fire district. The politicians are looking at the future revenue when the district is rebuilt. Don’t sell your fire department short for some politicians whim.
I have spent over 27 years in the Lee County Fire Service and retired from the Beach this merger would do absolutely nothing to provide extra services. It would only transfer the money generated on the beach to the surrounding communities.
No headcount or operating savings. Increase in response time. Why are we voting on this?
If I were/lived in Bonita and expected the current FMB new fire station location to respond in adequate time I would a little suspect?
I’m from a firefighting family so I have some knowledge on the subject and my opinions probably worth nothing more than anyone else’s. Margin the two districts will help the response time in the area that Fort Myers Beach currently covers on the other side of the bridge. I’m sure the study will show that but voting on this without showing actual facts and data is irresponsible and shortsighted. Get the information then make a decision.
That’s the problem with government…..people who have no knowledge of the subject are the ones making the rules. This is why we have fire chiefs….because they know firefighting. You wouldn’t ask your landscaper to perform heart surgery, would you?? That’s what’s happening here. And FMB already got rid of the battalion chief position, (massive mistake), so it’s not a question of “if” something bad will happen…..it’s “when”. Bad things happen without exterior command!!
If they use the same fire houses how will anything change other than less administrative overhead?
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.”
Increase response time??? Who’d want that?