Midway trims budget
BY LISA NEWELL Gulf Breeze News lisa@gulfbreezenews.com

On Tuesday, Jan. 29, voters overwhelmingly denied Midway Fire District's proposal to levy a $224 fee per residential dwelling and a percentage on each square foot on commercial businesses.

Additionally, voters approved the measure to increase homestead exemptions, which has the potential to reduce the fire district's revenues.

Greg Brown, Santa Rosa County Property Appraiser said his phone has been ringing off the hook with questions about how much Amendment One will affect taxing districts, but he tells them it depends on state legislators to write the implementation language in the upcoming session, and on property values which will be set on June 1.

Jacque Gorris, head of the Midway Fire Commissioners, said four firefighters received termination notices in anticipation of further cuts at the district. "It hurts tremendously, but we've got to take the good with the bad and keep moving forward."

The magnitude of the loss at the polls, by 81 percent, stunned both referendum advocates and protractors.

Ann Bodenstein, Santa Rosa County Supervisor of Elections, said the waves and thumbs-ups the firefighters received at polling places led them to believe victory was at hand.

"When the results came back, they like to died," Bodenstein said. The vote was 1,291 for the refer- endum and 5,391 against.

"It amazed me really that that many people voted against it," Bodenstein said, though she added that her office fielded many calls from residents angry at the firefighters' door-to-door campaign.

"People were just really hostile about it," Bodenstein said. "It was coming from every direction."

Because of the high emotion associated with the election, Bodenstein asked a special deputy to monitor the polling places but there were no incidents. "I was very pleased," she said.

Since the election, a representative from the Midway Fire District Tax Watch organization, a political action committee formed to fight the referendum, and members of the Midway Fire District pledged to work together for the good of the district, its terminated firefighters and the community as a whole.

"This is not a war, and we're not gloating over this victory," said Dave Szymanski. "We need to move forward. We can work together to fix the problems, we can work to fix fire suppression, and probably support the ALS (Advanced Life Support)"

Szymanski even offered to help find employment for the firefighters who were terminated because of the budgetary constraints on the district. He and Gorris met and pledged to move forward for the good of the community.

However, Gorris and his board have their work cut out for them in finding a way to deal with the district's finances.

"We're trying to be creative," Gorris said, adding that Midway's firefighters will still respond to calls for help. Gorris said he plans to seek wise counsel to help the district in the future.

"I am going to recommend to the board to bring in community leaders to help make recommendations," Gorris said.