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Budget Shortfall Delays Firehouse

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 30, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - ZEPHYRHILLS - Things were looking good for the city's plans to build a new fire station.
Council members had given Chief Keith Williams the green light to search for properties within the city limits and told him several funding sources were in the works.

Williams came back to the council a couple of weeks ago with a prospective site and a rough proposal to replace the city's flood-prone, 50-year-old station on Sixth Avenue.

His proposal was to build a two-story, 10,400-square-foot station on Seventh Street, between Third and Fourth avenues, in the heart of downtown. To do that, Williams requested the purchase of a 1-acre property - three parcels of undeveloped land - for $240,000.

Go get an appraisal and we'll talk about it, council members told him. So he did.

Last week, Williams went back before the council with a property appraisal and a list of potential funding sources, including the city's $3.5 million reserve fund.

Then City Manager Steve Spina hit him with a bombshell: Preliminary figures for next fiscal year's budget showed the city's general fund was already $300,000 in the hole.

Spina said there is enough money in the reserves to buy the properties, but he was reluctant to spend anything until he has a budget in place for the next fiscal year.

"I'm worried about the day-to-day operations of the city, like making payroll," he said.

"We can't spend what we ain't got," said Councilman Kenneth Compton. "We need a fire station, that much is clear, but I feel uncomfortable spending any money at this point."
Building a fire station would cost $1.7 million, city officials have estimated, compared with more than $200,000 to renovate the existing station.

After nearly an hour of back and forth talk Monday, the council voted to table the discussion on the firehouse and hold a budget work session at 6 p.m. today in City Hall.

Mayor Cliff McDuffie said he supports building a new firehouse but urged restraint.

"I want a fire station," he said. "But we've got to know where the money is coming from."

The Sixth Avenue station flooded in January during a rainstorm. Since then, firefighters have been working out of the World War II Barracks Museum at the municipal airport.

While city officials work on the design, location and financing of the new station, firefighters have moved into the Aero Center, a hangar at the airport, where the city is renting space for about $800 a month.

The need for a new firehouse comes at a time when the city is struggling to plug budget shortfalls caused by a loss of property tax revenue and depreciating housing values. Preliminary estimates indicate the city could lose more than $460,000 next fiscal year as the result of Amendment 1, the tax-relief measure that voters approved in January.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.

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