Minneola weighs $234 fee to fund Fire Department

City Council members are proposing to tack a $234 fire-rescue assessment fee on every home to pay for the city's increasingly expensive Fire Department.

[Juan]

Minneola...just thinking about those yahoo's running it makes me laugh.

[Randall]

Isn't this the same dept that was shut down because of some dispute among the firefighters? This poor excuse for a fire dept. should be closed forever and contracted to the county. How many calls, in the town, do they have every year?

[Lars]

Wang Lou wrote:

<quoted text>
Only CRAZY MINNEOLA would shut down their fire department one day, and raise the fire tax two hundred and thirty four bucks the next day.

My Mother lives in Tavares and says that they aren't the sharpest tools in the shed as far as fire and police go. I can't imagine why the smaller towns spend millions on departments that have no fires or bank robberies.
Couldn't the county do the job of police and fire and save everyone a bundle? Or...do they have numerous little fiefdoms in Lake County.

[Dr_Dolittle]

How much money do these people need? I mean, how many homes are there in that town?

Can I go there and form my own fire department and charge the insurance companies for my services, like private ambulance services do? I am sure that I can do this for a lot less than what the government is spending!

What's next, pay-per-fire?????? "Will that be cash, credit or debit?"

[Ken]

Dr_Dolittle wrote:

How much money do these people need? I mean, how many homes are there in that town?
Can I go there and form my own fire department and charge the insurance companies for my services, like private ambulance services do? I am sure that I can do this for a lot less than what the government is spending!
What's next, pay-per-fire?????? "Will that be cash, credit or debit?"

I've heard that you have to call ahead for a reservation and have your fire on one of the days that they haven't closed down.
The town could save money by hiring the ambulance service to station in the city and do medical calls. They could do away with the fire department...who obviously needs time off, and use the money to self fund a fire insurance program. If your house or business burns down, they write a check. Stats say that Minneola doesn't have fires and if they did, these fools would burn it to the ground while they were infighting. Save the money, write a check.

[Amateur Hour]

There is no way I would move into Minneola. These fees will just keep going up and up. The fire dept is a mess (and what about that shut down last week?). The mega expensive sewer plant has to be paid for (and the development did not materialize). Don't forget about the gambling proposal. What is mess those fools have made. I used to live in Clermont and hope to move back in 1-2 years, but I will not even consider Minneola.

[Dr_Dolittle]

Ken wrote:

<quoted text>
I've heard that you have to call ahead for a reservation and have your fire on one of the days that they haven't closed down.

Maybe they will impose restrictions like they do for watering lawns. Even numbered houses can only have fires Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Odd numbered houses can only have fires Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. No fires on Sundays, this is God's Country!

[Greg]

Dr_Dolittle wrote:

<quoted text>
Maybe they will impose restrictions like they do for watering lawns. Even numbered houses can only have fires Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Odd numbered houses can only have fires Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. No fires on Sundays, this is God's Country!

Can you get a permit to have a fire on Monday if you have an even numbered house? Tuesday is the social down at the fire hall and it would be more convenient to have the fire on the day before. I'm afraid if I wait until Tuesday, they might get in a big fight again and close down.
Why just the other day, I was talking with Goober down at Wally's fillin' station and he told me that Gomer and Barney.....

[Dr_Dolittle]

Greg wrote:

<quoted text>
Can you get a permit to have a fire on Monday if you have an even numbered house?

In order to do so, you would need to get all your neighbors from 100 meters in each direction to sign your petition, then you have to file it at City Hall in triplicate. The Citi Council would have to hold at least three public hearings where anyone opposed to your request would be given at leat 12 chances to speak, then the City would hire a consultant to study the difference in the envirormental impact that your fire would have if it happened on a Tuesday rather than a Monday, a psychologist to study how this might affect children in the area, and an ornithologist to report how the Tuesday fire might affect bird migratory patterns, especially for endangered species. Then the City Council would convene on site, travelling by chartered limo, to make certain that everythinmg is in order, followed by a quick lunceon and cocktails. Then your petition will be denied, but you will have the chance to appeal at least 6 times, repeating the entire process, so that we can all be certain that justice was served. After all of this, you can then sue in Court, giving the City's lawyer the opportunity to charge thousands of dollars a day, month after month, and after a year or two of pre-trial negotiations, they will settle the case out of Court granting you the petition that you filed exactly as you had requested in the beginning! That is how we save money in Government!

[Greg]

Dr_Dolittle wrote:

<quoted text>
In order to do so, you would need to get all your neighbors from 100 meters in each direction to sign your petition, then you have to file it at City Hall in triplicate. The Citi Council would have to hold at least three public hearings where anyone opposed to your request would be given at leat 12 chances to speak, then the City would hire a consultant to study the difference in the envirormental impact that your fire would have if it happened on a Tuesday rather than a Monday, a psychologist to study how this might affect children in the area, and an ornithologist to report how the Tuesday fire might affect bird migratory patterns, especially for endangered species. Then the City Council would convene on site, travelling by chartered limo, to make certain that everythinmg is in order, followed by a quick lunceon and cocktails. Then your petition will be denied, but you will have the chance to appeal at least 6 times, repeating the entire process, so that we can all be certain that justice was served. After all of this, you can then sue in Court, giving the City's lawyer the opportunity to charge thousands of dollars a day, month after month, and after a year or two of pre-trial negotiations, they will settle the case out of Court granting you the petition that you filed exactly as you had requested in the beginning! That is how we save money in Government!

It sounds like you need to represent me. I'd like to water my lawn on the same day as I schedule the fire and don't want to be fined.

[Lars]

Wang Lou wrote:

<quoted text>
Because of your post, they may have to close CRAZY MINNEOLA down for a couple days, to determine whose job it is to think about what you wrote.
You forgot to add the smoke in the sewer plant impact fee, that would have to be filed, and the Historical Directors impact fee to keep the historical showpiece desk from a mayor in 1978 clear of possible heat related enviormental, probably might, maybe,have occured, or might someday occur.
Don't forget the study to have police dogs over there, even though they do not have a police department.
Also of course if the fire was near the graveyard where the CRAZY MAYOR buried a bag of bones last year, there would have to be studies done to see whose job it was to check on the bones.
I wonder how long before the solid, hard working people trapped in that nightmare over there start to freak out and start grabbing the idiots running that place by the collars and tossing them in the middle of 27.
How much more can they take and pay for this obcene circus?
Raise the tax two hundred and fifty bucks for this?
Only in CRAZY MINNEOLA!!!!!!!

What the mayor should do, is raise the fee to $1000. Then, when the 17 citizens of Minneola show up to raise hell, he can back off to $300. Gomer, Wally, Floyd, and the gang will think it's a bargain.

[JJJ]

And coming to your town/city soon..

That's because the socialist-lib mentality has wrecked Minn.. just like it has CA, NJ, and NY, etc..
Mark my words.. If Americans don't wake up in time..(why he's working so fast to pull it off).

Before The BHO-GANG is through with us..

The entire USA will be taxed to death (with devalued money), Energy deprived, and won't even have access to affordable, decent medical care!

[Rick Roderick]

the council members propose stuff, with little or no research. also there is a vacant seat, someone sits in it but the seat is vacant.. guess which one,,