The city of High Springs will likely discuss a proposed cut to mutual aid funding from the county for its fire department, in addition to 2025-26 budget options, during a workshop on Thursday.
Last week, the city posted a video on Facebook where City Manager Jeremy Marshall urged citizens numerous times to attend the workshop due to the “many financial struggles [that] are facing High Springs.”
He said staff will review ways to raise revenue by either increasing fees or reducing services that could impact its emergency responder staffing levels. Marshall said parks and recreation service levels and programs will also be discussed.
“Over the course of the year, revenue streams have gone down while expenses continue to rise,” he said. “We are looking at any option to make this city run in a healthy manner. Please, please get involved and come to this community budget workshop, as this is going to have a direct impact on your day-to-day life.”
Commissioner Katherine Weitz also emailed the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) last week regarding a proposed 33% reduction in mutual aid funding from the county for its fire department, which will be factored into the upcoming budget.
According to a Facebook post from Weitz, High Springs and the county charge each other an equal fee for fire services reimbursed by call. The city bills the county quarterly.
Weitz said the High Springs Fire Department (HSFD) received $385,594 from the county for providing mutual aid to Alachua County Fire Rescue during the 2022-23 fiscal year.
The county has reimbursed High Springs $306,000 for the first three quarters of the 2024-25 fiscal year, and if nothing changes, the HSFD will provide the county $408,000 worth of mutual aid.
Weitz said High Springs budgeted this fiscal year for around $300,000 in mutual aid from the county, a 22% decrease from the previous year, due to increased services provided by the new Fire Station 21 in Alachua.
After hearing the county would propose around $197,000 in mutual aid to High Springs, Weitz emailed the BOCC that the reduction accounts for only three months of data since Fire Station 21 opened.
She asked the BOCC to keep its annual mutual aid to High Springs at $300,000 for the 2025-26 fiscal year so that a decision to raise the city’s fire assessment rate—which it recently did for the first time since 2019—could be made based on one full year of data.
Weitz said she intends to follow up with each county commissioner to fully explain the impact the mutual aid reduction could have on High Springs’ budget.
“Understanding that our annual budget is so much smaller than the county’s budget, a $103,000 deficit for us is significant,” she said in the email. “We recently passed a resolution setting our fire assessment fee higher for the upcoming year, as it had been quite some time since we have raised that rate for both residential and commercial residents, so I don’t think we have the capability of adjusting that at this point in our budget cycle.”
The budget workshop will be held at 5 p.m. on Thursday at the High Springs City Hall (23718 W US Hwy 27) and also livestreamed.
The workshop will recommence following a regular City Commission meeting at 6:30 p.m. where the commission will discuss entry into the Bridlewood development, an ordinance limiting alcohol sales within 500 feet of a church, renewing its solid waste removal contract and setting its 2025-26 fire assessment rate.
Any questions about the meetings can be emailed to Marshall at jmarshall@highsprings.gov or the High Springs City Commission at citycommission@highsprings.gov.