With the city's 20-year-old reserve fire engines being in service 54% of the time, Ormond Beach Fire Chief Richard Sievers knew it was time for a change.
That change included getting two new trucks to replace them, though at the first budget workshop held on June 4, that seemed unlikely. At that time, it didn't gain enough support from the commission. But at the budget workshop on July 30, the commission gave staff direction to move forward with a 3.36% property tax increase to fund the lease purchases of both fire trucks, as well as two additional police vehicles.
“That was the vision of where we needed to go," Sievers said. "I’m just so glad that [the commission] bought into that and understood where Ormond Beach should be.”