Collier voters to weigh in on consolidating fire, EMS services

NAPLES, Fla.- When voters head to the polls on Tuesday in unincorporated Collier County, they’ll most likely see firefighters with the North Collier Fire Rescue District showing their opposition for consolidating fire districts and EMS services into one.

“They feel that it’s an issue that is going to raise taxes and decrease service,” said Christopher Spencer, head of the union for North Collier firefighters.

Spencer says several independent fire districts in the county were set up specifically to keep local boards in control and to fight big government and higher taxes.

Yet Chief Kingman Schuldt of the Greater Naples Fire District says consolidating all the fire districts in unincorporated Collier County makes sense. It worked for their district when they merged with the Isles of Capri Fire Department two years ago and reallocated some positions.

“The bottom line for us is we need boots on the ground, Schuldt said, “and if we can take a couple hundred thousand dollars that were being utilized for some duplicate or redundant staff positions, or internal services like it, we can take that and put people out in the field.”

Greater Naples also shares paramedics and firefighter paramedics with Collier County EMS.

“For us, it’s allowed us to share staff, share resources and capitalize on your
dollars by doing that,” Schuldt said.

Spencer says voters should be skeptical, “it’s a plot to create a bigger government entity and it’s going to raise taxes.”

Collier County commissioners say they’ll look at the results of the straw ballot to see if voters want them to make any changes with the fire districts and EMS services.