Fed Up,

That makes two of us...being fed-up, that is.

Maybe the DeBary residents reading this should look-up archived Beacon articles about the Deltona Fire Department.

They will find a very interesting one, when the Deltona Fire Department was looking at CHARGING Deltona citizens for fire services IN ADDITION to our property taxes!!! The same fire department that just broke ground on the largest fire station in West Volusia just two weeks ago.

Everyday there is news of lost jobs, failing companies, foreclosures, etc., etc, (Deltona has the highest foreclosure rate in the county) How is it that all the other city/county governments (metro to rural) are scaling back and cutting their budgets, and looking for ways to save money...

But, Deltona can move forward with building a $2.7 million fire department building plus equipment and staffing for it to serve areas that are "underserved"?! While at the same time they are bidding to provide services to a whole other city (as if Deltona was not big enough and there was not enough territory to cover)!

Why? To serve their own interests. No doubt, the union and the Fire Department administration have lobbied hard for this. Motivated by greed and aspirations of growing their department at the taxpayers expense.

Beware, Debary...is all I can say.

Hello Why,

Thank you for taking the time to read the archives. I have lived in this area since Deltona & DeBary were just bedroom communities. I remember when the first houses were built in Deltona. And, I agree with you that Deltona is growing faster than their services can handle. I also think that the citizens of DeBary would have been best served by staying with the county. This is not going to happen due to some political back & forth that most of us will never know the truth about. The good things is that DeBary will have to pay whichever city it finally decides to go with & I hope that (even though it will hurt the citizens of DeBary) they have to pay plenty. As you can see I really am FED UP! Thanks for listening or should that be reading?

Fed Up,

I did take an opportunity to look at archived articles and read posts. I can see what you mean about "passions" running high... and about some of the comments being from "insiders". (Case in point, the post below) It seems when you have politicians, self-serving administrators, unions,and digruntled employees in the mix, it becomes a frenzy of lobbying for their own best interest and throwing jabs.

Regarding the subject of Fire Service in DeBary, my point is a simple one:

As a resident of Deltona, I don’t believe that the Deltona Fire Department should be bidding to expand into DeBary when there are areas of Deltona that are currently underserved, and when the fire department is mismanaging resources without regard for its citizens.

Whatever powers are at work...the city commission, the fire department administration, the union...that want to expand the Deltona Fire Department so drastically and so quickly; they are not doing are not doing so in the best interest of the citizens they are sworn to serve. Their goals are self-serving.

That preety much sums OC up.... Of course Neyer wants OC and not Deltona because Deltona doesnt have "TICKS".

Whoops, sorry. I used the wrong name. I meant to address my thoughts to Why on Earth

Dear What The,

Please take a moment & read some of the previous articles that the Beacon has written about this subject & please read the comments section. Then you will understand my comment on firefighters, citizens & armchair quarterbacks. I feel both sides make some valid & not so valid comments. No one really knows just what the ultimate cost of this move will be & hard figures (provided by any party concerned) haven't really come into play. That is unless you read the feedback from the earlier articles. Somehow the people commenting seem to know more about what is happening than anyone else. This is a subject that causes passions to run high, but we should all remember, we don't yet know "the rest of the story".

If the Debary Fire Station needs to be fixed-up, then I would certainly hope that the funds needed were included in the proposal from Deltona to DeBary, so that the cost could be allocated appropriately. Collaboration between city/county governments is a great thing. However, spending my city taxes in another city is malfeasance. My wallet is stretched. We are paying $2.7 million for a new fire station (the biggest in W. Volusia)...when an adequate station could be built for significantly less.

Meanwhile, Deltona has 24% of the foreclosures in the entire county, the city commission is sitting on $6.6 million in federal money (taxpayer money-our money!) to help remedy the situation...and have done nothing. Our property values are **** and, we have a myriad of infrastructure issues. And still, our city government (in this case, the Fire Department) continues to prioritize the wrong things, and spend recklessly with total disregard for the citizens of Deltona.

Call it pontification, armchair quarterbacking, or whatever you would like...but, if Deltona Fire Department wins this bid for fire service in DeBary the only place where the "switch will spell disaster" is in Deltona.

...that is of course, until Deltona Fire decides they’d like to build a $3 million station in Debary and pass on the cost to the citizens there. Of course they would only do that to "better protect the citizens."

Stand by for firefighters, citizens & arm chair quarterbacks to pontificate on why the switch is going to spell disaster. I too wish that we had stayed with the county service but, it was not to be. There is much more to this than fire services, going back to the 500 boat marina that was not approved by various government entities. As far as Deltona providing fire service....there are some in Deltona that think if it isn't for Deltona, in Deltona & only Deltona they want no part of it. I can't see them standing still for this especially if it means Deltona might have to spend some money getting the DeBary station up to snuff.

So Deltona Fire Department is bidding to provide Fire Services to Debary?! Very ambitious, given the fact there are areas of Deltona that are currently underserved by the Deltona Fire Department. At least that is the justification that they are using to have Deltona taxpayers build a $2.7 million fire station for them. At 12,500 square feet, it would be the largest fire station in West Volusia (maybe all of Volusia) and would be part of a "safety complex" associated with a land developer's plan for retail space that the city commission is drooling over... under the guise of "better serving the citizens of Deltona".

Now they are looking to "serve" DeBary, too. Even though by their own pitch, there are residents that could be better served in DELTONA. My suggestion to the Deltona Fire Dept: Focus your efforts in the city you are sworn to protect life and property FIRST, before spreading the mismanagement and blatant disregard for the taxpayers to neighboring towns.