W hen a ship fires a warning shot across the bow of another ship, the targeted ship normally alters course or stops. This was the response by Martin County Fire Rescue to a strongly-worded letter from the Stuart city manager to the county administrator stating that there had been no effort on the part of the county staff to advise city staff or elected officials of the "commission's sudden and unannounced decision to proceed with the purchase of land on Kanner Highway" to construct another fire station in an area now jointly served by both city and county facilities.

The city of Stuart and Martin County governments utilize several inter-local agreements to provide fire-rescue and EMS services into each other's respective jurisdiction. Such agreements are common between fire-rescue departments to assist each other in minimizing operation, personnel and capital costs, and can be a very cost-effective alternative to building, operating and staffing new fire stations.

There are areas of unincorporated Martin County where Stuart is in a better geographic position to provide fire and EMS service; likewise, there are several areas of the city where Martin County is in a better position to provide these same services.

The County Commission is moving toward funding an additional fire station in the SR 76 corridor with a capital cost of approximately $3.5 million; annual operating costs are not yet identified. The Jan. 22 county agenda item indicates that the Port Salerno, Tropical Farms and Palm City fire stations are responding into this area, but fails to mention that the Stuart Fire Department has also responded into this area through existing inter-local agreements.

The city manager's letter continues by challenging the parameters used by the county to justify new station siting and dispatching policies. He goes on to question whether the call statistics reported to show levels of activity at each station are flawed, using one example of five fire-rescue units going to a single incident being counted as five calls. He states that this further suggests the call records of individual stations need to be audited to make sure that the numbers are accurate.

The proposed new station would have a capital cost of approximately $3.5 million, while the total cost to the city to relocate its Fire Station 2 was estimated to be $750,000. Do the math, dear readers. All told, this letter enumerates many, if not all, of the issues and pent-up frustrations which have accumulated between the city and the county fire-rescue systems, and clears the air for healthy rebuttal, review and adjustment.

From the city's point of view, county staff is willing to spend any amount of money in order to produce their complete monopoly of fire-rescue services in Martin County. As the city manager concludes: "As professional administrators, I feel we have a duty both to our respective commission and to taxpayers to bring an aura of cost saving and cooperation to the senior officials of both our Fire Rescue Departments."

Martin County has responded with a 13-page rebuttal that answered most of the questions convincingly, covered by a personal letter from the county administrator. The remaining question is whether or not relationships between the two departments have assumed a "new aura of cost saving and cooperation." After all is said and done, if that's the outcome of the city manager's letter, it will have succeeded. Some officials are saying the answer to that is "yes," and if that is so, all taxpayers should benefit.

We have been focusing on Martin County Fire Rescue since their budget got out of sync with the rest of the county, fueled by the negotiation of an 11 percent pay increase per year for a three-year period. The department's operating budget for fiscal years 1997/98 to 2001/02 soared 53.26 percent compared to a 5.6 percent population increase. Their very creative public-private contract for an emergency trauma helicopter service seemed too good to be true, so we are rechecking those projected vs. actual costs.

One thing is for sure: In these fire-rescue departments we have some of the most highly skilled and dedicated employees. It is in the best interest of all taxpayers, city and county alike, to have a fair inter-local agreement that maintains the highest level of health and public safety services to achieve our common goals, rather than playing politics and duplicating services side by side within adjacent political boundaries. We hope our city and county elected officials are listening. We'll provide more information as we get it.