GB, Midway FD burying the hatchet

Though tempers flared between Midway Fire District representatives (MFD) and city staff members at a Gulf Breeze City Council meeting May 7, both sides have decided to bury the hatchet in the interest of public safety.

Despite the passage of a resolution related to MFD's county-wide ambulance service bid and a weeks-long standoff between the two groups, MFD and Gulf Breeze Fire and Rescue officials have agreed to work through the issues between them.

"We don't want to get in a rock-throwing contest with Gulf Breeze," MFD Fire Chief Stephen Demeter said in a later interview.

The core of the conflict has been Midway's efforts to begin ambulance service. MFD officials submitted their own bid to the county for county-wide ambulance service and offered to cover their own area in a joint bid with American Medical Response (AMR).

City and MFD officials have disagreed in the past over the qualifications and abilities of the two departments, and the city's decision to not support the MFD ambulance bids.

"There are things we don't agree upon but we're working through it. We're trying to get them resolved," Carmichael said. The night of the City Council meeting, both agencies responded to a structure fire in the Tiger Point area and worked together without incident, fire officials said.