, Fla. — Volusia County’s biggest city needs to come up with roughly $50 million to upgrade its fire department. A report Eyewitness News obtained shows some Deltona fire stations are too small and outdated and that additional locations may be needed to reduce response times.
The report outlined all of the updates needed to make Deltona’s five fire stations suitable to serve the growing population. It said all but one of the facilities are outdated and undersized and that the lack of space has led to equipment being kept outside. That has resulted in response times being 3 minutes higher than the national standard.
Right now, the city is considering using bonds or a bank loan to cover the cost. The repayment would ultimately fall on residents, something Commissioner Nick Lulli isn’t ok with.
“I am committed to making sure new development pays for that. I don’t want that on the backs of our residents,” said Lulli.
He believes a development moratorium will give Deltona enough time to increase impact fees for builders.
“We need new development to pay for itself. We’ve had these new homes come in. Hundreds of them and they’ve only really been paying a small fraction of the actual true impact on Deltona,” said Lulli.
Some people are ok with being taxed more if it means they’ll be safer.
“I am going to do it because it’s a great service they’re giving to the community,” said Sandra Sanchez.
Others like the idea of putting the burden on the builders.
“Let that money be taxed to the developer instead of the residents,” said Cathy Tyler.
The fire department has a workshop scheduled on July 14 to go over this issue. The city’s development moratorium gets a final vote on June 23.
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