MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Could Manatee County fire departments be consolidating? That was the talk during one commissioner's meeting after a volunteer fire department requested more resources. Commissioners said in order to achieve that, Duette Fire and Rescue Station would need to merge with a station that already has those services.
The Duette Fire Rescue District encompasses 200 square miles of northeastern Manatee County.
The Duette Fire and Rescue team are trying to get a Certificate of Public Convenience from Manatee County commissioners. Once the fire station has that, they can make a request to the state for their Advanced Life Support Permit.
However, at the April 23rd meeting, County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge said they don’t meet basic requirements.
“It came up again this time because Duette was wanting to achieve ALS status, but they are unable to meet the bare minimum qualifications to meet that. If Duette were to merge, they would achieve the same thing,” said Van Ostenbridge.
VIDEO: County commission meeting about consolidation of fire districts
According to county commissioners, they have no say or any part of decision making if the fire stations are going to or can consolidate. The commissioners say it’s entirely up to the fire departments.
“We have no power. We aren’t a charter county. We can’t do anything up here other than try to facilitate anything that is in your best interest to do it,” said Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse.
Spectrum News did reach out to Commissioner Kruse for comment and he told us that he doesn’t want to comment any further on the matter.
Fire Chief Rocky Parker has been with the Duette Fire and Rescue station in Duette for 7 years, and a chief since 2023. He is against the consolidation and says that he doesn't believe that this is a true conservative approach.
The Duette Fire & Rescue Station has 7 paramedics in a volunteer team of 40.
One of the recent investments Parker has made in technology was the purchase of defibrillators that cost the station $80,000.
He says he purchased this equipment, among other things, in order to use during calls.
The department had these devices for two years now, but is unable to use them because the county hasn’t given them a permit to apply for their Advanced Life Support permit.
“The county kind of declared that we weren’t even barely qualified to provide this service. That’s not true; the state really determines that,” he said.
The fire chief has put out everything that the Duette Fire Rescue Station has provided for the ALS permit according to the Manatee County Ordinance 17-041 on their Facebook page:
That’s when county commissioners offered up the idea for Duette to merge with another fire station. That would give them the ALS resources they need. So the chief hosted his own town hall meeting on April 30th to see what the residents in their coverage area wanted. "It was no on cosolidation," said Parker. "True conservative values lies within local people deciding their own destiny, their cost and the level of service that they want and this is what our citizens want."
Parker has been a paramedic and firefighter for decades. He knows how important it is to respond quickly to a call, especially in this rural area. But when they can’t use their ALS equipment, he says it puts lives at stake.
“We will wait for an ambulance up to 20 to 40 minutes. There’s not a thing we can do with advanced life support. It keeps happening over and over and over again,” he said.
Parker says he’s going to continue asking the county for a Certificate of Public Convenience, in order to request an ALS permit from the state.
“We've have some of the worst car crashes out here in the county; it’s nothing for us to have 4 or 5 people that are critically injured, and having just one paramedic on the scene is just not enough. We fill that gap for people that need it,” he said.
Despite the county telling the chief that they don’t meet the requirements, Parker says they have already invested $80,000 on Advanced Life Support equipment and already have an ALS rescue vehicle.
He’s pushing forward with a mission to give people more help and will be meeting with Senator Jim Boyd to talk about what more can be done so his station can use this life saving equipment.