DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — An issue that pitted north Walton County residents against their brethren in the south was resolved for the time being Tuesday when a divided County Commission voted to increase fire assessment fees in unincorporated areas.
On a motion by Commissioner Bill Imfeld, the commission voted 3-2 to raise the residential fees for fire service from $25 to $75 a year and charge 7 cents per acre for agricultural and vacant land.
Commissioners Ken Pridgen and Bill Chapman voted against the fee hike.
The long-debated issue had sparked several heated discussions previously, but no one spoke for or against the hike Tuesday.
The hike is a compromise from previous proposals. It is the first of its kind since the county established a Municipal Services Benefit Unit in 1997 for unincorporated areas to receive fire service from Walton County Fire Rescue.
The hike will affect only those served by Walton County Fire Rescue. Residents served by the DeFuniak Springs, South Walton, Liberty, Argyle and Freeport fire departments will not be affected.
Imfeld called the increase a “drop in the bucket” for areas that for 15 years have benefited from county service as well as the purchases of equipment and gasoline.
“It’s time to man up. Firefighting isn’t free,” he said. “When the cost of government goes up you do things to recover the costs.”
For those with large land holdings, though, the 7 cent-per-acre charge will be a huge burden, said David Kramer, who owns about 100 undeveloped acres. He claimed one owner of a 1,000 acre property will see his taxes jump by 400 percent.
“It’s unfair to tax when it’s not by ad valorem,” he said after the meeting. “This punishes people who live in the county.”
The 7 cents collected from agricultural/vacant land owners will be used to reimburse the county what it pays state foresters to put out brush fires.
Kramer said the fee amounts to paying county firefighters to battle blazes they refuse to have anything to do with.
“If they see a fire in the woods they don’t even send a truck. They call Forestry,” he said. “The county doesn’t want to scratch up their pretty engines.”
South county resident Don Riley supports raising the fees.
“The prices have risen so much we have to pass on some of the cost to those who are receiving the service,” he said last week.
Imfeld called the sometimes rancorous discussion “real heated stuff that tended to be polarizing” for north and south county residents.
“That’s a shame,” he said. “We really need to do what’s best for all the county.”